Beast of Burden
by Red Constance
Summary: She was changing- physically, mentally- slowly and then all together. Rage seemed to own her, lust, fear and pain became inescapable. Something was wrong with Mars, and her like-brothers Scott and Stiles were going to figure it out even if it killed them. Or, at least, before it killed her. Eventual Stiles/OC. M for language and potential scenes in the future.
1. Invasion of Privacy

**Beast of Burden**

**Chapter One**

**Invasion of Privacy**

* * *

_"There are wounds that never show on the body_

that are deeper and more hurtful

than anything that bleeds."

-Laurell K. Hamilton

Sometimes life hits you hard. Like full force, wrecking ball flying off the chain and hitting you hard in the face. It happened in that way for Mars once, in 2004, when Claudia Stilinski died. The ten year old watched Claudia deteriorate, but having her be gone was different in its entirety. Death shattered Mars, made her look at herself, at her place in the world. In the grand scheme she was nothing, no matter how long she lived, what she did- She wouldn't even be a blip on a timeline, and her memory would die eventually. Everyone will continue on when its said and done. Those were the thoughts that haunted her every day.

It was a weird thing to think about, something she never thought could happen. A time and a place where she simply wouldn't exist anymore. Sure, she might get brought up in a conversation or leave behind a house and a few kids, what have you- but really nothing she would ever do matters. In theory she could still watch her big brother on a sunny Saturday afternoon, sipping some tea on the porch and reading a good old book, she could watch her little sister fall in love, be happy and be sad- but no one really knows what's going to happen once you've gone.

Mar knew what she was when she was alive though. She was the bad kid. The one new parents didn't want their children hanging out with, the one who wore too much eyeliner, wore too little clothes and kissed one too many boys. She was different, she intimidated people with piercing eyes and a smirk that said 'I dare you' no one could seem to imitate. She was "hot", but not in the Lydia Martin way, in fact she could be what's considered the Anti-Lydia. No, Mars Moss was hot in the "I don't give two fucks", "lost youth" sort of way.

She tried too hard to not try at all.

No one really knew when it happened, when she switched over from the little girl that loved princesses and smiling and was so damn smart that she skipped a grade to a girl who habitually cut classes and just skated by. It was a slow process, but most people couldn't remember a time when she was different. No one really cared enough to try and remember.

Wearing a denim jacket over a tight fitted black bodice, a pair of black jeans and combat boots she'd gotten off her plane back from London and stretched. Her family already far ahead of her, they all knew this airport like the back of their hands and didn't feel the need to stick together. It was a slow walk to the baggage claim, and she stopped a few times along the way. Once at McDonald and another to look at departing flights.

_Hawaii_. She thought. _Must be nice_. She added, promising herself to go one day.

Even slower than waiting for her little green suitcase was the car ride home when her mom decided, because she was going to be Mars' math teacher this semester, that she'd review algebra one. Which just frustrated the petite teen. In fact, she never even went into the house when they were home. She left her suitcase in the trunk and walked down the street to the Stilinski house settling on a day of video games before school started back up in the morning.

"Ha! Headshot!" Stiles laughed, looking over to his best friend with a wide smile for approval. She just focused on the game, annoyed that his score was higher than hers by only 20 and she couldn't seem to catch him. Mars had promised that she wasn't going to shut the system off if she was losing this time… it might've been a lie. She wasn't sure yet. "So how was your trip?" He questioned, glancing over at the brunette. Smiling yet again when he saw how concentrated she was and knowing that the scrunched up eyebrows meant she was about to rage quit- and if she did, he was going to get 20 bucks.

"Good." Mar continued looking at the screen while she shot at a swarm of zombies in Black Ops.

"That's it? Good? That's all the details I get?" Mars glared at him, knowing exactly what he was doing. He was trying to get her talking, so she'd stop focusing on the game and she'd lose and she'd have to give him money. That wasn't gonna work this time though. "You can do better than that, Moss."

"You know, good old motherland. Reliable." She sighed. England was the same for as long as she could remember. Well, maybe not _England_ but her family was. Same old countryside estate, same old grandparents, even London- though the people looked different, everything else seemed to stay the same. "What did you do over break anyhow, Stilinski? Get anything good for Christmas?" Mars changed the subject, she'd actually forgotten Christmas had happened when she was gone, it felt like forever ago even though it was only January 9th.

"I got new tires for the Jeep" He shrugged, spraying the zombies in front of him. "Mostly me and Scott just hung out. Would've been more fun with you here." They smiled at each other before looking back at Black Ops. "I'm sure you wankers enjoyed the guy time."

"Wait… you're… you're not a guy?" Mars bit the inside of her cheek and pursed her lips, nudging him on the rougher side. If it hadn't been for the sped up pace of the game he would've looked over at her and seen the pursed lips has turned into a smirk. Sometimes he forgot she had a gender… which is weird… but it made sense to him. Yanno, like, he'd just known her so long and was so used to her it was just like… she's Mars. Just Mars. A whole being in and of itself. And Mars felt the same way about him.

"So you mean to tell me, every year, nothing happens when you go to England." She rolled her eyes. They had this conversation every time she got back to the states, and she always said the same thing. 'It's fine' 'It was boring.' 'Eh.' The only time she'd ever had anything different to say was when the plane she was in went down last summer. It wasn't a Lost style crash and no one was hurt. Something had blown in the right engine during a ritual flight between JFK and Heathrow and the plane was forced into a crash landing. Granted, she still wasn't afraid of flying- statistically speaking, she rationalized that she was in the air so often it was bound to happen one day- in fact you could say she got a sort of sick thrill when her stomach lurched and the final announcement was made saying 'brace for impact'. It was the first time she felt like she was about to die and it was better than any drug.

Everyone around her was far more affected by the experience than she was. Her dad, Sayid (her only family member on the plane that time), wouldn't let go of her hand for hours and he kept putting off the flight home. When Mar did manage to convince him to get back on the air his hands shook before she placed her hands over his and gave him an Ativan… which took his mind off flying well enough. It was more focused on "Is my kid addicted to pills?!" But Mars was able to pull out some bullshit about buying it for the flight and how she was super nervous.

When they landed and got outside they were in a sea of people who surrounded and smothered them. They all cared so much, having everyone care felt nice and all but Mars didn't understand the concern- it wasn't like she'd died- or even had a scratch for that matter. Back to the original point, that was the only time she'd come back to Beacon Hills and said something new; and that was "Eventful"

"It's not as exciting as you seem to want it to be, Stiles."

"It's another country!" Stiles exclaimed

"Where everyone speaks English and I spent half my life in." Plus, she kinda sounded like them... half sounded like them? Her accent wasn't as much as her dads or her older brother, but she wasn't quite American either. She was in some weird middle ground a little closer to the American side, but with the slang and speech patterns of Brits. "It's like going from your house to mine or Scott's- no big deal."

"I guess?" Stiles agreed, Mars yelled at the screen when she ran out of ammo and was attacked. "Ha, I'm not reviving you." Stiles smiled.

"Don't be a dick." She glared, getting ready to take the controller from him.

Knowing her all too well he moved his arms away from her. "Too many zombies, if I try- I die"

"Come on just revive me before you get taken out." She argued.

"No." Zombies started surrounding the screen, it took less than a minute for him to get killed. She smirked and leaned back against the headboard. "Ha, told you that was gonna happen."

"I- Shut up." Stiles put the controller down and stretched. He'd won. But he also owed her 20 bucks. So he pulled out his wallet and put it in her open palm. She counted the stack of ones and shoved the green papers into her back pocket. "You do any of the reading?" He knew the answer, but thought asking might be nice. Only the AP classes were full year, and her mom, being a teacher, made Mars' schedule for her. And of course that meant she had homework over break.

"No." Mars decided to lay on her back and pick up a magazine off the nightstand, she opened it up without looking at the cover. "Well then" She noted, eyes glazing over the forms of naked women on the page. Stiles took it from out of her hands with an awkward laugh. "Seriously, you and Scott. Haven't you ever heard of the internet?"

"Ha. Ha." Stiles moved the porn onto his desk and sat in the chair. "So, you gonna do the plan this semester?" Stiles wiggled his eyebrows and bit his lip, leaning forward in his chair.

"_Your_ plan. And no." Mars and Lydia had been in all the same classes since they started elementary school. Every year since Stiles decided he had a crush on Lydia, he'd been trying to convince Mars to work with her on a group project, so that he could just drop by and she could go to get drinks or something and 'forget' about them so that he could put the moves on the stunning red head. Stiles started to pout. "Stiles, no."

"Don't you love me?" He questioned, she sat up and ran a hand through her dark curls.

"Not that much." There was no force on earth that could make her spend more than the school day with Martin.

"I-" Stiles pointed at her, the start of a smile twitching at the end of his lips. "Will pit you." Stiles threatened. 'Pitting' was his favorite thing to do when he wanted his way. It involved taking her face and shoving it in his sweaty armpit. It had made her physically sick on more than one occasion.

"And I'll kick your ass, twiggy." Stiles narrowed his eyes, challenging her. She could beat him without much effort at all, it wasn't a very difficult task, considering his lack of muscle. She wasn't muscular either, and she may have even been just as tiny, but she had this little thing called technique in her favor. Stiles looked her over, scanning her freckly face and waiting to pounce. Mars cocked an eyebrow over her heavily kohl lined eyes, and beckoned him to her with an index finger. Stiles winked… or twitched… Mars could never really tell the difference with all the adderall that kid took.

Stiles' dad opened the door and came in, "Hey, kids." Mars and Stiles waved halfheartedly. "How was the flight?" Sheriff asked the kid who might as well of lived at his house, she even had a key. "Cramped. I had to sit between Ineas and Ahmir." Her big brother and little sister were definitely characters. And, as a matter, Sheriff was Ahmir's godfather. A.j. was a goober, quite a bit like Stiles in a few ways but a little taller and skinnier with big bushy brown hair and slightly too big hazel eyes like his sisters blue ones. He tended to go off on philosophical rants and blast Garth Brooks in his pickup a little too loud. Ineas, though the cutest kid with the curliest hair in history, was evil. At least in Mars' eyes. Nay-nay loved to torture her older siblings, get them in trouble, that sort of thing. Long story short, being stuck in between her too loud brother and perfect little sister for 10 hours in a tight space was pretty low on her list of favorite things. "Gotcha." Sheriff decided not to inquire further. "I ordered Chinese food, Scott coming over?"

"He wants to get 'rested for practice' tomorrow" Stiles stated, a little annoyed. "He thinks he's gonna get first line."

"Sounds like a waste of a perfectly good night of greasy food and video games to me." Sheriff smiled, trying a hand at sarcasm. Considering that this was his son's and his late wife's best friends kid's every single night. Mars noted his tone and gave a closed mouth smile before looking down at her chipping dark blue nail polish and picking at it.

"Speaking of, Dad, you sure you should be eating-" Stiles started in on his issues with his dad's diet, so Sheriff cut him off before Stiles could start throwing around "well, the doctor says…"

"Don't worry, Stiles, it's just for you guys. I'm heading to the station in a few."

"Kay, Dad."

"Thanks, Sheriff. Did you get-" Mars started, Sheriff cut her off.

"Crab rangoon? Yes. And I have a name, Marsi." Once he'd become Sheriff, which was ages ago now, she stopped using his name. It seemed like so much less fun.

"No one uses their real name these days." Mars reminded him, well, at least no one in this room did. Sheriffs real name wasn't so bad, but Mars and Stiles? Come on, their nicknames are _Mars_ and _Stiles_. How bad would a first name have to be to constitute that?

Sheriff shook his head and started back for the door. "Moneys on the counter." He informed them, "Be safe guys"

"Can we have ten bucks to go buy-" Mars shot him one of those looks that said 'keep talking and I'll kill you'

"Keep dreaming, Stiles." Sheriff joked and with the shake of his head was heading back downstairs.

"Yanno, it's not totally unrealistic. I mean-" Again, with only the raise of an eyebrow, she silenced him. "Shut up."

The house phone rang once, then twice. Both of the friends pounced across the bed, wrestling for control of the device. Mars managed to get Stiles in a chokehold while she muted the microphone and raised the thing to her ears. When she let go of Stiles, he pressed his ear against the other side of the phone. "_The state is coming in._" The dispatch officer on the other line told Sheriff, and consequently, the two idiots eavesdropping. "_You said the body was in_ half?" Sheriff Stilinski's voice came, Stiles and Mars gave each other excited, wide eyed looks. "_Yes, sir. In the woods a few miles from the Hale House- the joggers said it looked pretty bad._" Both Stiles and Mars' smiles were growing wider by the second, it was morbid- but they were ecstatic something was happening in this town. "_One more thing Sheriff, we can't seem to find the other half of the body._" The pair high fived and hung up the phone.

"We're going." Mars informed him. "Lets go grab Scott."

"W-what about the Chinese food." Mars rolled her eyes.

"Stiles." she put both of her hands, palms up, in front of him. "Dead body." she raised the right. "Greasy food." she lowered the left. "Dead body." She raised the right even higher and dropped the left lower. "Chinese food." She grabbed her jean jacket from the back of Stiles' chair and put it on. "Not much contest, mate."

They waited for Sheriffs car to leave the driveway before trekking outside, leaving money on the mat for the delivery guy.

* * *

"We're seriously doing this?!" Scott exclaimed, lagging quite a ways behind Stiles and Mar. Unlike Stiles she slowed her pace whenever she took notice, but it wasn't very often. "You're the one always bitching that nothing ever happens in this town." Stiles remarked.

"You do too." Mars reminded Stiles, hell, she complained right along with them. He bitched just as much, if not more than Scott did. Stiles shrugged and continued up the hill. "I was trying to-"

"Get a good nights sleep for practice?" Mars cut him off and raised an eyebrow, sometimes she thought maybe she should stop cutting people off. Every once and a while she even put in the effort, but it continued with no avail."So you said. Is practice really more important than quality time with your two best friends?" She taunted. "Besides, you're both just gonna be benched again anyways."

"No. I'm playing first line this year." Scott tried to convince them. It wasn't that he was a bad player, he was good- he was just a lot smaller than everyone else, and his severe asthma didn't help. Mars wasn't trying to be mean… but someone had to tell him.

Stiles of course came in with his ironic sense of humor. "Hey, that's the spirit. Everyone should have a dream, even a pathetically unrealistic one." Mars smacked him with the back of her hand.

"Just out of curiosity, which half of the body are we looking for?" Scott questioned, Stiles and Mars exchanged looks. "Huh! I didn't even think about that." He remarked.

Mars turned back to face Scott and wait for him. "I guess we'll know it when we find it?" After thinking about it for a moment, just finding a pair of legs would be weird. "I hope it's the top half." She remarked with a scrunched up nose as Scott caught up.

"And did either of you think that the killer is still out here?"_ Oh Scott, always such a worrier._

"Also something I didn't think about." Stiles laughed a little to himself, seemingly unworried. The thought had crossed Mars' mind in the car, but she figured 3 on 1 odds would work in their favor.

"It's comforting to know you've planned this out with your usual attention to detail."

"I know."

"Stiles!" Mars grabbed the back of Stiles' shirt and pulled him down below the top of the hill, catching a glimpse of the blue and red lights turning.

"Yes?" He smiled.

"Cops. You guys wait here." She commanded standing up and brushing off her jeans, Scott raised his inhaler to his mouth and hid behind the nearest tree. Why was he still letting him drag out of the house and into this crap?

Stiles' face lit up. "Ha! I love when it's your turn." Mars hated when it was her turn to take the fall, but it was only fair. You'd think maybe they would stop doing stupid and incriminating things, but that would be so much less fun for the trio of adrenaline junkies.

Mars glared at him for his comment, but it didn't deter him. "Shut up you tit." She mumbled while emerging from the trees and stuffing her hands into her back pockets. It took a minute for anyone to notice her, as always when she was noticed she was greeted with a pair of eyes looking her up and down. She gave Deputy Marks a smirk and a wink, he smiled and scratched the back of his head. Another, newer deputy greeted her with a gun, pointing it at her. She raised her hands with a sigh. "Hold it right there!"

Sheriff came over, stepping into the scene. "I'm afraid I know this little delinquent." _Right on cue_. She thought.

"Oi there, Sheriff, lovely night." Sheriff took a deep breath in and closed his eyes, he should have known that they'd turn up here.

"You've got 10 seconds to explain why you're not at the house." He gave her a chance to talk her way out of trouble, something she was usually quite good at.

"What? Can't a girl go out in the woods for a stroll?" She defended, cocking her head to the side to move her hair out of her eye, then winking and Deputy Marks a second time upon noticing the stare. Sheriff took note and stepped in front of her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Not tonight, no. Have you been drinking?" His brows pushed together.

"Not this time," She noted.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't just hear that." He attempted to file it away in his mind, along with a whole lot of other things. "Where's Stiles?"

"Not here." Sheriff crossed his arms, he didn't believe her. Not in the slightest. For one, they'd been together only an hour ago. Two, finding one, without the other two was like striking water in the Sahara. And finally three, he knew it was her turn, Stiles was the one found at the last crime scene.

"Mars, I wasn't born yesterday."

"I can see that." It slipped before she could stop herself, and his slightly taken aback look guilted her. "Ugh, get out here you wanker!" She shouted back into the clearing she'd come from. They were caught, might as well quit while ahead.

Stiles walked over to them with a nasty case of the jitters and waving energetically to bystanders like he'd done no wrong. "So," Sheriff started, looking between what he considered to be his kids the majority of the time. "Do you listen to all my phone calls?"

"No, heh. Not the boring ones." Stiles laughed, waiting for a reaction he wasn't gonna get.

"Now, where's number three?"

"Who? Scott? No, he's home getting some sleep for practice tomorrow. It's just us. In the woods. Alone. At night." Stiles squinted a little after he'd said it. Playing back his words when he looked at his dad's face. "You know I see where that could potentially sound bad."

"You should really let me do the talking, Stiles." Mars muttered, shaking her head, trying to figure out why in the hell of it all she still talked to this kid.

"Scott, you out there? Scott?" Sheriff called out into the woods, when Scott didn't follow them out, Sheriff- even though he knew the kid was out there- let it slide. "Well, children, I'm gonna walk you back to the car. And we're gonna have a conversation about something called invasion of privacy."

Sheriff clapped a hand on each of their shoulders and started walking them back to the Jeep. Mars questioned; "Is that _really_ necessary?"

"Unfortunately yes, Moss."

"Ya know, the way I see it is if there is a murder running around- that information should be public. Am I right, Stiles?" Mars side eyed the boy. Trying to make her point.

"So right it hurts." Stiles agreed, turning to his dad when they reached his Jeep.

"See, Sheriff." Mars continued. "Plus… yanno, we're only trying to speed up the process in helping you to find part two!" It was a weak defense, but better than nothing in her eyes.

"I can see your record growing bigger the more and more you talk." Sheriff remarked. "You two tampered with _another_ crime scene." He was nearing his wits end, he could only do so much more with the department. Not to mention trying to get the trio- especially the two with the very questionable moral compass- out of trouble. "Do you want me fired?"

"No of course not." Stiles chimed in. "We love you."

Sheriff ignored the comment, because it was the '_I love you_' that meant '_we're excused, because we love you and you love us_.' "I don't want to have to write either of you up. One more misdemeanor and you're in hot water, Mars." He reminded her, despite his best efforts, there were some things he just couldn't get her out of. Like flying high as a kite and getting fined with possession of illicit drugs (thankfully it was California), and on another occasion getting cited for driving without a license. Thankfully, Stiles hadn't been caught doing anything illegal just yet- but it was really only a matter of time. "Just go home for now, we'll finish this talk later." Sheriff concluded before catching Mars' arm. "And I will be calling your parents." He didn't want to. At all. No one wanted to deal with the wrath of her mum, Mary, but he realized it was better to come from him than through the grapevine.

"I think they've stopped caring." Mars noted, eyes growing a little sad for a moment before jumping into Stiles' Jeep.

She was wrong, they definitely still cared.

"What the_ fuck_ is wrong with you?!" Mary shouted, Mars sat upright in the living room chair with her legs crossed. She so desperately wanted out of this place it wasn't even funny anymore. Sometimes she thought she hated her mom, and then she'd remind herself that Mary could kick it, like Claudia had, and she couldn't bring herself to use the word hate. One thing was for sure, Mars sure as hell didn't like Mary."I just don't understand what goes through your head, kid." The mother shook her head, annoyed with her daughters lack of facial expression. "I could deal with the constant detention, I can deal with the possession charges, I can deal with you being a shit student. Want to know what I can't deal with, _Marit_?" Mary used Mars' middle name that was much preferred to the unpronounceable first. "I can't deal with my kid running out in the woods late at night with a fucking _murderer_ _or_ wild animal on the loose!" Mars knew that she wasn't being completely irrational. When it was put like that, it did sound pretty bloody stupid- but it didn't feel that way at the time. "Do you know what people are saying about you?" Mary exasperated.

Wasn't a mother supposed to be proud of their children? Mary looked over her middle child. She was the only one that looked like her really at all. Her other two looked like their dad with caramel colored skin and curls, but not Mars. No, Mars had Mary's blue eyes and the same nose. Granted, she was paler and had more freckles and her hair was a few shades darker but there was no denying the relation. You could hardly see her dad's half-Egyptian side at all. It upset Mary just to look at her, such a pretty girl ruining her beautiful eyes with all that makeup, dressing the way she did. Today was a conservative day and the bodice top still showed off a little bit of her stomach.

Mars leaned back, stretching her arms out on the arms of the chair and leaning back. "Enlighten me."

"Cut the attitude!" Mary shouted, Mars noticed Nay-nay poking her head out down the stairs, followed by A.j. not too long after.

"Can I go to bed now, mother?" Mars cocked a brow, not wanting her siblings to have to deal with the shouting.

"_No_!" Mary screeched and raised a hand to hold her head "Fucking fuck, kid"

"I'd appreciate it if you'd stop yelling." Mars looked at her little sister, who was smiling a little and her brother who was giving Mars a sympathetic look.

Before Mary could stop herself, she snapped. "And I'd appreciate it if I could swap you out for someone else." Mars looked as if she'd just been slapped. It wasn't the first time Mary had said something like that to her, but Mar recovered quickly, moving to her feet and grabbing the weekender she kept in the shoe cupboard. Even Ineas stopped smiling and sat down on the steps, it wasn't all fun and games anymore. "Mars, **shit**, I'm sorry."

"No, Mum, you're not." Mars put her jean jacket back on and put her school bag on her back before returning the stocked weekender to her right arm. "I'm out of here." Mars informed her mother and walked straight out the front door.

"Mars, get back here!" Mary tried, "We can talk about this!"

"_**FUCK YOU**_!" Mars cried and slammed the door behind her before beginning the short trek to the Stilinski home. She tried to brush her mother off unsuccessfully. When she got to her destination she took the key off her necklace and went inside. It was late and she didn't want to wake anyone who was in. With the lights off she locked the door and went into the kitchen, taking off her boots and jacket and put down her bags. Remembering a few hours ago, she grabbed a glass of water and the box of crab rangoon from the bag in the fridge. She used a paper towel to wipe off the traces of her smeared eyeliner and beads of water from her face, then decided to put her hair up into a high ponytail. She needed to occupy herself, do something thoughtless. So she decided to do the dishes. Because one, she always helped around the house with chores and things or else nothing would get done, and two- they started to smell funny and pile up while she was overseas. When she was done, she made her way to the couch at an agonizingly slow pace, stepping one foot in front of the other, thinking deeply about all the reasons she needed to change herself before deciding that maybe it was other people who should change. She sat down, and then she lied down, looking at the dining room table that was covered in Sheriff's paperwork and some week old coffee. She fell asleep, thinking to herself _I'll vacuum in the morning._

A few hours later, at around 2 a.m. Sheriff came home overly stressed out about this new case. They were unable to find the other half of this girl and they'd have to make an announcement sooner than later. He sure as hell was looking forward to his four hours of sleep. He caught a glimpse of Mars green bag and went to the linen closet, grabbing her a spare pillow and neatly folded blanket before walking over to the couch he knew she'd be on. It's where she always was when there was trouble at home. He laid the blanket over her and placed the pillow under her head as gently as he could. He still remembered the day she was born, Claudia was more happy than Mary about it. His wife had been so excited, bouncing in the room with a 10 month old Stiles on her hip and a two year old A.j. waddling to come meet his new little sister. Even though Claudia never said it, Sheriff knew the reason she was so excited was because her best friend just had a daughter, and she had a slightly older son and it couldn't have been more like one of her books. Claud and Mars had been so close when she was alive, "Ce ce" as Mars would call her, was the one to braid her hair and take her to the park with Stiles and helped her through her first boy crisis… Sheriff turned the ring on his finger, he didn't want to think about Claudia right now

Upon going to leave, he felt a small hand grab his. When he turned around he was met with a small smile. "Thank you." She mumbled, blinking heavily, finding it a little hard to keep her eyes open.

"Mom?" Sheriff suggested, not really needing the confirmation she gave him with her nod of the head. "Are you okay?" The nod turned into a shake, she saw no point in lying about it. He'd know anyways.

"Was she always like she is now?" Mars propped herself up on her elbow, a little surprised she'd never asked before. Sheriff sat on the edge of the couch and pondered it.

"No. In fact, she used to be like you." Sheriff thought back to those days in college, when Mary was a free spirit and loved a good time and wanted to travel the world and see exotic places. Things used to be so different, it was amazing how much could change in the blink of an eye.

"Then why does she hate me?" Mars asked with glassy eyes. Teenagers acted out all the time. It was supposed to make parents try and reel them in, to give a fuck about the kids well being instead of their own reputation. Her mom should want to_ help_ her. Sayid was too busy with work to even know what was going on in his eldest daughters life. He'd caught glimpses of it on family vacations, when she would disappear and come back, or when Mars and his wife would fight… but he didn't know what to do about it. So he just did nothing.

It hurt Sheriff to hear that this _child_ believed her mother didn't love her. "She doesn't hate you, Mars."

"Yes she does, she's said it." Mars informed him. She never said much about those arguments with her mom. She'd just kind of show up and clean a bit every once and a while. He couldn't believe Mary would say something like that to her own blood, it just didn't seem like the woman he knew, she wouldn't put that on a teenager. She knew better; at least he hoped she did.

He didn't know how to respond to what he'd been told. At all. So he decided to let it be until he could say something proper and let her know what she'd learned when she was given a key. "You're always welcome here, kiddo." Sheriff knew it said a lot that Mars wore the key around her neck instead of on her keychain that would just get tossed into her purse. It hung beside a crescent moon pendant of her paternal grandmother's. It told him that she cared about it, that she didn't want to lose that key, it told him that his house was what she considered home.

"Hey sheriff?" The blue eyed girl asked when she saw him going to get up. "Yeah?" He replied.

Something her mom had said was eating at her. "What… what do people say about me?" She asked, it didn't sound very good.

"Wouldn't know, I don't listen to it." Sheriff assured her. Granted he had on occasion, sometimes it was unavoidable at the station, she'd had more than one complaint come in. Most of the time it was the Butler family mother, who had convinced herself that Mars was stealing away her only son and bringing him to the dark side. Saying that the little tramp needed to have a stern talking to from the authorities, she was also the one to tip them off that Mars had drugs on her. Any other complaint was about noise at parties she just so happened to get herself stuck in.

"Why not?" Mars asked, looking him over. "Mom does."

"Because I'm more concerned with the girl than the legend." He answered, making her laugh a little, her slightly uneven teeth showing.

"Thanks." She nodded, moving her arm out from beneath her and laying back down.

"Get some rest, kid." Sheriff suggested, tucking the blanket into the couch out of habit, even though he knew they'd get ripped out overnight. "And promise you'll attend every class tomorrow."

"I promise." Mars held out her pinky finger, which he took. "Night, Sheriff"

"Mars, Its-"

"Sheriff." She insisted, giving him one of her looks that told him she would not be swayed.

"Sure, yeah, it's Sheriff." He shook his head giving in and kissed her forehead. "Sleep tight, kiddo."

"You too." She half smiled, pulling the blanket up above her shoulders and getting comfortable, already taking out the tucking of the blankets.


	2. You're No God

**Beast of Burden**

**Chapter Two**

**You're No God**

* * *

"_The only way to deal with an unfree world_

_is to become so absolutely free_

_that your very existence is an act of rebellion."_

_-Albert Camus_

Mars glanced down at her phone's clock before pounding on the bathroom door. "Stiles, hurry up!" It was going on the half hour he'd spent in there. "Come on, I need to shower." The toilet flushed and the sink turned on before he emerged in his towel.

"Calm down, Moss." He waved his hand in front of his face, scrunching up his nose for a second and smiled. "Have fun with that one," He remarked and headed down the hall. Trying her best not to vomit at the stench her so called friend left behind, she sprayed the air with some Lysol and dropped her weekender on the soaking wet counter. She would never understand how he made such a mess, he didn't even have much hair. Just the little bit on his head, a small tuft on his chest and a happy trail that he was supremely proud of. Of course he had hair in _other_ places too, but she didn't quite like to think about that. Okay, maybe he was hairy- but none of it was on top of his head. She plugged her IPod into its speaker, putting it on shuffle to hear Ke$ha's _Tik Tok _on a minimal volume before stripping down and jumping into the shower.

Knowing she was running low on time it was a quick one. When she got out she actually skipped out any trace of makeup and did a pretty half ass job of blow drying her hair. The moon pendant and house key she always wore made their way back around her neck, then came the undergarments and then a red plaid short sleeve shift dress that would be _way _too short if she even thought of bending over. Turned out she hadn't re-packed his bag since summer and she was running low on options. She took her reliable worn-in chucks and stuck them on her feet over socks, put on her leather wrap bracelet and threw any mess she made back into the bag before tucking it under the sink. Lastly, she put on the same denim jacket that she'd worn the day before.

Back downstairs, Stiles and Sheriff sat at the table looking over papers. Mars grabbed Stiles' baseball cap and put it on top of her head, turning it backwards and grabbed an apple. "Took you long enough." Stiles remarked, taking a bite of his Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich.

"Sorry I didn't need to let out the content of my stomach." She bit into the apple, leaving it in her mouth while she put her backpack on. She bit off the chunk and used the top of Stiles' head as an elbow rest. "You ready to go?" She asked him.

"Nah." He joked before getting a prompt look from his dad. "Yeah, I meant yeah."

He stood up, making Mars lose her balance slightly. Stiles made a beeline for the door, forgetting his backpack but holding onto his sandwich. Mars grabbed his bag for him and grabbed a cup of coffee. "Hang on, what're you wearing?" Sheriff looked at her for the first time this morning.

"A dress?" Mars replied, giving a slight curtsy.

"Thats supposed to be a dress?" He repeated, looking at it again before shaking his head. "Go change." Mars raised an eyebrow. "I can't let you go out like that, you're going to freeze." He explained. Mars smiled, a real genuine smile where her teeth actually showed. Sheriff didn't say "Cover up" "Put some clothes on" or "You look like a ho.", he'd said she was going to be cold- unlike her real parents who would've said any of the previously mentioned. So yeah, she smiled, in a way only a few people could make her, because they cared.

"I've got some leggings in my gym locker." She acknowledged. "I'll be fine."

In response, Sheriff went back to his paperwork and took a sip of his coffee. Mars followed Stiles out to the Jeep. "Forgot your bag, mate." She threw it in the back and pulled herself in. Stiles put his sandwich in her hand so he could start the car up, she took a bite and then he leaned over and took it back using his mouth. "Scott call last night?" Stiles nodded, "And did he make it home okay?"

"Yeah." Stiles shoved the rest of his sandwich in his mouth and started talking with his mouth full. "Said he got bit by something." Sadly, Mars understood what he was saying.

"What's _something._" Suddenly feeling guilty for leaving Scott alone in the woods, she felt an overwhelming need to know exactly what had happened and exactly how she could help.

"_Somfin_" Stiles mocked her accent, a stupid grin on his face until he felt how utterly unentertained she really was with him in the form of a fist wailing against his arm. "Do not hit the driver!"

"You're being a sodding idiot! I'm being serious, now, is Scott alright?" She repeated.

"_Sodding idiot_. " He mocked, "Yeah. He's fine. Lighten up Moss ." Stiles frowned, rubbing the spot she'd punched.

"I'll lighten up when you smarten up, Stilinski."

"Are you kidding? You don't get any smarter than this- I'm like," He paused, searching for the most ridiculous claim he could make. "A god. Yeah, I'm like a god!" He beamed, stopping at a red light.

"You're no god." Mars put her feet on the dashboard and cracked her knuckles.

"Yes I am." He stuck to his guns.

Deciding to just play along, Mars said in a very melodramatic tone; "Oh great Stiles, won't you ever forgive my ignorance!" Raising a hand to her forehead and looking away momentarily.

"I suppose I shall be merciful on this fine morning, but strike me again- and tomorrow you will not see." Anyone could see Stiles pause, backpedal, make sure that came out right and then nod when he decided it was.

"This is getting ridiculous now." Mars stated, Stiles agreed. "What classes did you get?" Mars reached across the clutch and into his pocket where she saw the reddish toned paper folded up and sticking out of his pocket.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you not to take?" Stiles smiled, keeping his eyes on the road.

"Nah, Mum never taught me much of anything." She looked down it, guessing Scott was going to have mostly the same classes, and based off that logic, the trio was going to have Algebra II, Chem, and Econ together. "Have you even looked at this yet?"

"I looked at first period." Stiles stated proudly , "English, with Curtis, right?"

"What book are you guys reading?" Curtis was always one to send out the course reading list once he had his roster, and there was no reason for this semester to be any different than the rest.

"_Kaftaka's Metamorphosis_" Stiles attempted, butchering the _Kafka_ part of the titl e , "Ever heard of it?"

"Yeah, this dude Gregor gets turned into a bug and then his family is all 'oh no' and doesn't want bug-man around. So bug-man just goes to his room and dies, the family is happy about it and fires the cleaning lady." Mars ended, replaying her words in her head like Stiles had done just a little bit ago. "Wow. That was a bad summary… read the book."

"...yeah, don't count on that."

"You're i n my mom's math class with me." She put the schedule back in his pocket and threw the half eaten apple out the window.

"_Wonderful._" Sarcasm, as always, being Stiles' only defense, took over.

"Hey, at least she likes you."

"Get out of my car." Stiles demanded, when he looked to the side for the first time since her feet got raised to the dash, he felt his heart race a little. Her dress had slid up a ways and its hem was nearly at her hipbone, it looked like those legs were gonna go on for miles. "T-that's nice." He commented.

"Close your mouth." Mars rolled her eyes and jumped out of the car, her little smirk just as present as it always had been and likely always would be. Even if it was only Stiles, she was still a bit flattered. She always enjoyed men's attention. "See you after English!" She winked and walked off to go get her leggings, although, it wasn't all that cold.

Scott came up behind Stiles and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "When- when did that happen?" Stiles asked, dumbfounded, staring after the rear end of his childhood friend. "How- how did that happen?" He rephrased.

"Stiles. No." Scott laughed and led Stiles towards the school.

"Where ya off to Moss?" Mars heard a voice come from behind her, making her turn around. A tan guy, with some adorable dimples and black hair that just so happened to be her very first ex boyfriend turned gay stood before her.

"Danny! Hey" They shared a quick hug. "You know, just grabbing some tights from the locker room."

"Heard you and the Stilinski kid crashed a murder scene last night." _How the hell do people already know about that?_ She asked herself. Word spread so fast around Beacon Hills it was actually getting slightly frightening. "Any fun?"

"Nah, we didn't see anything." She pouted, still a little bitter over not getting to see anything cool before they'd been forced to fess up "Oh well."

"Looking good, Moss." Jackson Whittemore was the next to join the two. Mars always had this theory, that Jackson and Danny had a thing . Jackson was horrible to pretty much anybody and everybody except Danny. Unwilling to accept that Jackson just simply enjoyed Danny's presence, she came to the conclusion that Jackson, no matter what he said about Lydia, was in some degree of love with his gay best friend. "You should take the top off too." Jackson wiggled his eyebrows and bit his lip.

"That's what I like to call overcompensation." Mars taunted, making Danny laugh even after he got the death glare from Jackson.

"I'm not even going to justify you with a response this time, Moss." Jackson snapped. "Hey Don." Jackson greeted his good friend walking over.

Labels weren't exactly Mars' thing. Not on relationships at least. For some reason the very thought of having a boyfriend irked her. Even though she hated the title, she did have something similar to a 'relationship' with one guy, Don Butler. Remember that one lady? Mrs. Butler that always complained about Mars to the police and managed to get her arrested? Yeah, her son. They'd been an on and off sort of very private, secret, hush hush thing. He was handsome enough- bright green eyes, dark brown (probably a little too long, seeing as he could tuck it behind his ears) hair, quite a few freckles, a strong jaw, and he was built rather nicely. Yet, even though he was very likely the epitome of physical attractiveness for her, she had no desire to date him. Not officially. Not in public. He came over, making the group of three now four with his lacrosse stick on his bag like the rest of the team. "Mars, what do you say we meet up after Coach's class?" She looked him up, biting her lip and personally liking the way he didn't beat around the bush.

"Will you call off your Mum?"

"I'll do my best, yeah." He agreed. Danny and Jackson, as always, knew about the situation, seeing as they were Don's Scott and Stiles equivalents.

"Okay then, see you in Coach's class." She agreed and decided not to entertain them any longer. She walked across campus to the locker room, grabbing her leggings. Remembering seeing girls wearing things about the same length, she decided to forget wearing anything under. It had to be almost 60 degrees outside, plus, she'd be inside most of the day. Besides, she didn't mind the attention in the slightest. Just in case, she shoved the black leggings in her backpack and went to go to class. "Scott, wait up!" Mars shouted when she caught a glimpse of the black hair and lacrosse stick.

"Mars, hey." Scott smiled, they walked together till they reached their lockers, which were conveniently located almost beside each other, hers being just one to the left and one down. She squatted down and unlocked it.

"How're you doing with the whole bite thing?" She looked up, shoving some books in it. "Do you feel okay? Did your mom check it out?" Concern was evident in her voice. It was totally her fault he got hurt, or that's what she convinced herself.

"What would I tell my mom?" Scott closed his locker and looked down to her, he'd thought about asking his mom to check it out- she was a nurse after all and it looked pretty gnarly, but he couldn't figure out how to ask without getting grounded into the next century.

"That your two ass h ole friends dragged you out of your warm safe bed and forced you to participate in illegal activities and left you for dead?" Mars stood up and linked her arm with his before they started walking again. Standing still wasn't a forte. "Just put it on us, you won't get in trouble."

"I'll be fine."

"You need to make sure it's not infected, Scott." She stressed.

"I'll go to the nurse later." Scott stopped and turned her to face him, a slightly sideways grin on his face. "...It was the top half."

"You found it?!" She'd nearly shouted, eyes lighting up. "That's so cool!"

"You're demented." Scott shook his head

"Did it smell like really bad?!" It was weird that she was a little jealous of Scott's adventure, and it was highly irrational that she so desperately wished she could have switched places with him. The whole idea of the mini adventure appealed to her greatly.

"Of all the things you ask, you ask about the _smell._" Scott rolled his eyes, he was surprised Stiles hadn't asked the same question.

"Did it?" She repeated.

"Bad, very bad." Scott finally answered before the bell rang. "I'll see you after class."

The A.P. English kids in the first block class didn't waste any time, they all immediately took their seats from the previous semester, which were alphabetical. Mars found her way to her seat slowly, trickling a little after the rest and taking her spot next to Lydia, just like every year. Martin and Moss tended to be the only two M's in every class. Even though they didn't waste each others time in the hallway or outside of school, they were relatively well acquainted and even though neither was the others biggest fan, they did share a sort of mutual respect when it came down to it. "Nice dress." Lydia commented when Mars sat down, Mars nodded as thanks.

"Your hair looks nice." Mars returned the compliment, Lydia's hair always looked nice. Like, goddess nice. If they hadn't known each other since first grade, Mars would've thought her hair was fake. Well, if not fake at the _very _least that it was dyed.

"Thanks." Lydia accepted. "I'm surprised you're here."

"Made a promise to the Sheriff." Mars explained and took out her copy of _Beloved_ by Toni Morrison. She wasn't quite sure how it was allowed in school but the less that was banned the happier she was.

"Gotcha." Lydia understood. Over years of observance, Lydia knew how much she respected Sheriff, and history told her that Mars wasn't exactly one to go back on her word. "You read the book?" Lydia asked.

"Yeah, I thought it was pretty beautiful. Scary, but beautiful." She'd told most people who'd asked that she didn't do the reading. In most peoples minds, she never did the reading. Mars didn't quite understand why people believed her because honestly, how did they expect her to pass the tests if she didn't read the book? Homework- that she never even touched, but language and words were beautiful- why would she reject that?

Mars didn't ever feel like she needed to lie to Lydia because even if they weren't friends, they knew things about each other that most people didn't. For example, Mars knew that Lydia was without a doubt the smartest person anyone would ever meet and that she just plays up the stupid so that people would like her. When Lydia's parents had filed for divorce, Mars was the only person Lydia told. And Lydia knew about Mars' home life, and she also knew Mars had a tendency to pretend that she cared about nothing when really all she was doing was trying to piss off her mom enough for Mary to tell her the truth. What the truth was, well, Mars wasn't so sure- but she did know she wanted to know what her mom's problem was.

"I agree." Lydia skimmed over her annotations.

"Hows Jackson?" Mars inquired, doing the same.

"He's good, lacrosse is starting so he's happy." Lydia explained "Hows Don?"

"Dunno." Mars chuckled, she didn't think she'd ever once asked him how he was, but she was pretty sure that Don had never asked her either.

"That's healthy." Lydia commented.

"Eh."

"Martin. Moss." Mr. Riggs caught their attention, making them look up from their books. "Anything you care to discuss with the rest of the class?"

"Nothing you'd want to hear, sir." Mars informed him. "Just small talk."

"Save it for after class." Riggs went back to the blackboard.

"You got it." Mars saluted.

* * *

"See you in Chem." Lydia waved and started off down the hall after English class.

"See ya." Mars replied turning in the direction of her locker, Stiles waited for her only a few feet away.

"See, I just don't understand! You won't do the plan, but you guys don't hate each other, what's the problem?" He urged an answer from her, his mouth hanging open slightly and his hands tugging on the straps of his backpack.

"Two very dominant personalities on one two person project wouldn't be good for anyone involved, mate." Mars tried to explain, Stiles looked as if he didn't comprehend a word of what she'd just said.

"So what's the problem?" He kept that same expression until his arm shot into the air, waving at Mars' big brother. "Hey, A.j.!"

Ahmir stopped and walked over to the pair, high fiving the guy. "Sup, mate?!" He greeted, just as overly enthusiastic as Stiles was. "Little sis." He nodded.

"A.j." Mars returned the gesture.

"This feels very tense." Stiles noted, taking a backwards step. Yet he didn't leave the siblings all together."I think I'm just gonna back away."

"Mom was crying." A.j. informed Mars, he wasn't particularly fond of Mary either, but he did want Mars to know the effect she was having every time she stormed out. Neither mother or daughter was right, Mars shouldn't have snuck out and Mary shouldn't have said she didn't want Mars… again… on both parties.

"Good." Mars crossed her arms over her chest.

"_Mars._" A.j. stressed.

"She's being a bitch." Mars cursed. "Did dad even notice I was gone?"

"Not really." A.j. answered honestly. Mars was pretty sure he didn't even know how to lie.

"Shocker." Mars rolled her eyes, completely fed up with both of the ass holes that gave her life.

"Mom cares."

"Yeah well, I don't want to talk about it, why don't we just pretend like it never happened and you go back to being the goof of a big brother I know and love." When Ahmir got serious, it made everyone uncomfortable.

"You might want to put some trousers on before mom's class." A.j. smiled, going back to chewing on his sweaters drawstring. He did it all too often, it was one weird habit.

"What fun would that be?" Mars' smirk returned.

A.j. ignored her. "I'll see you around, Stiles."

"See ya, A.j." Stiles waved, Ahmir was a cool guy. "That was unpleasant." Stiles remarked, as they head to her mom's classroom. Don passed by walking in the opposite direction and he winked at her when he caught her eye, she turned her head as he passed. Coach's class was certainly going to be fun. "Did I miss something? You and Butler? He and Jackson have been the very bane of my existence for 8 years now." Stiles was more than confused, and it was written all over his face. He would be the last one to know that he was almost always the last one to know.

"Don't worry about it, Stiles."

"Don't move to the dark side." He warned, half serious, half joking.

"I promise I won't move to the dark side." Mars swore.

"You willing to spit shake on it?" She sighed heavily, pinki swears would never be enough for Stiles. Without word, she spat in her hand, Stiles did the same in his and they shook on it. "Good." He nodded.

"That is still so disgusting." She muttered and wiped her hand on his sweater and took some hand sanitizer out of her bag, offering him some.

"Nah I'm good." He just wiped his hands on his pants, Mars scrunched up her nose. Just when she'd started to gain faith in boys, Stiles violently tore it down- a special skill of his. They went into class, still chit chatting a bit and took seats beside each other. Mary avoided any and all eye contact with Mar s, she wasn't at all over last night. S he wrote on the blackboard before the bell rang, _Dr. Moss, Algebra II_ "Hello class, I am Dr. Moss, not Mrs. I paid a lot of money to be able to call myself a doctor." She began her introduction, clearing her throat. "Anyhow, I know this is a required class and that half of you are aiming for a C. So, I guess I'll say a few things about myself. I'm from Beacon Hills myself, educated at Stanford. I have three kids, one of whom many of you know." Mary pointed to Mars who was slouching far into her seat. It wasn't out of embarrassment, more laziness than anything.

"Dude your mom's a milf." A boy behind her leaned forward to say. Stiles stifled a laugh, Mars turned around and claimed; "I'll chop your dick off if you say it again."

"She's got an attitude problem, as you can clearly see." Mars glared heavily up at her mother, Stiles waved- he really didn't want on her bad side.. "Yeah, hi Stiles." Mary waved him off. "I guarantee she's not going to get any special treatment from me, she'll probably fail along with the rest of you who think it's OK to cut my class. Let that be your warning." Mars clenched her jaw and her fist. Mary didn't mean for things to come out as they did, it just kind of… slipped?

"So, lets go around the class, everyone can say a few things, Stiles, why don't you start. Say your name and three interesting facts about yourself." Mary shifted the focus away from herself.

Stiles stood up and waved, his eyes twitched a little bit before he started speaking. "Sup, I'm Stiles. Obviously. Uh. I'm on the lacrosse team, even though I'm mostly benched. That's not that interesting- does that count Aunt Mary- I mean Dr. Moss." He questioned, cursing himself under his breath.

"Yeah, Stiles. That's fine." Mary answered with a smile, not at all annoyed. Looking at him was like looking at Claudia, and _fuck_ did she miss that woman.

"Kay. Cool. Um my dad's the town's sheriff. and uh… looks around. Mars here is a good friend of mine." He sat down quickly, first days were the worst. They all knew each other anyways.

"Lovely, Mars, it's your turn."

"Got that, Mum." Mars stood up, eyeing her mum for a second before turning and leaning against the table. "My name is Mars Moss. Lets see, interesting facts." Mars held out a finger to represent the number 1. "One, I've been arrested twice now." Mary's eyes narrowed, drilling holes into the back of Mars' head. "Oh, sorry, I guess I wasn't supposed to mention that one." Mars turned around making a face of mock apology before holding out another finger. "Two, I'm not wearing pants. For those of you who've never had the pleasure of English programming, pants mean panties." She smirked a little more even though it was a lie, but making good ol' Mummy squirm was just too irresistible. "Guess she doesn't like that one either." She turned around, fake biting her nails. "And three, if you couldn't tell, I'm English on the weekends." She went with one not cringe worthy 'fact'. "Is that sufficient mother?" Mars smirked, and god did Mary hate that fucking smirk.

"Sit. Down." Dr. Moss seethed. "I'll be keeping you after school."

"Or, you know, I could just see you at home. Where we live." Mars sat,making eye contact with her mum on the way down. "Fine, I'll see you in detention." She agreed, making a few members of class laugh.

* * *

Don's skin still burned where she'd kissed his collar bone. It wasn't very glamorous. They were in a cramped old office where no one came in anymore, they were sweaty,and the room reeked of it. Mars connected her lips with Don's again, her hand running through his hair that she frankly thought was better than her own. Don's fingertips grazed her bare back, before it got heated, Mars pulled away. "Last time." She stated, their eyes locking together.

"You keep saying that." Don didn't want this to be the last time they hooked up, and he knew with their track record- it wasn't going to be. Mars slid off the desk, consequently against him, and shook out her hair before leaning over to the side and grabbing Stiles' hat, putting it back on the way she had it before. Maybe it was the look on her face when she did it, but it rubbed him the wrong way. The look she gave him so often that he could sense it before it even came said 'this means nothing to me'. He could only describe it as mischievous and cocky- and he wasn't even sure that those were the right words. It wasn't that their whole… situation, if that's what you want to call it, meant the world to him- but it meant at least more than nothing. "You seeing that dweeb?" Don pointed to the hat, pulling his trousers up from his ankles and fastening his belt.

"Who? Stiles?" He nodded, watching her put her undergarments back on, then that dress that had been driving him crazy all day long. "You think I'd be in here with you if I was with Stiles?" Again, something about the way she said it rubbed him the wrong way.

"You never know." He played it off, shrugging, and pulling his shirt back on.

"The answer is no. If I was with Stiles, I'd only be with Stiles." She confessed, she didn't mean just Stiles, she meant in general- if she was going to be committed to a person, she'd be committed. The thought of cheating irked her. "Besides, he's not that dweeby." She defended her lifelong friend.

"Whatever you say." He agreed, grabbing her by the arm when she went for the door and turning her around. He kissed her, rather passionately. His forearm pulled her middle against him and his open hand cupped her face. It felt like he was trying to prove something. "See you on the field?" He asked her, on the quiet side.

"No, my loving mother has decided that I deserve detention. So. Yeah." He knew next to nothing about her, sometimes he forgot that. Then she would say something like that, and he'd be reminded that he didn't even know any of her siblings names. It worked both ways though, she didn't know anything about him either.

"Harsh." He agreed.

"So, I'll go first." She informed him, her hand on the door handle. He nodded and she left, going right for the bathroom to wash her hands and fix anything that had gotten messed up. She hadn't been wearing makeup, so it wasn't so bad. Mostly just the hair.

It didn't take very long for Scott to find her once she left the restroom and now that school was over. "Mars, I need a favor." Scott rushed, before leaning against some lockers. "See that girl over there?" He pointed to a pale girl with black hair and dimples that was stunningly beautiful, Mars had seen her a few times that day and knew she was a new girl. It was typically pretty obvious if someone was in Beacon Hills. "Her names Allison, and you're going to go ask her to hang out with us on Friday." Scott was never really very assertive, so Mars was reasonably skeptical.

"What? Why me?" She questioned, not _opposed_ to the idea but she also wasn't fond of the idea of an intrusion of her, Scott and Stiles' video game night.

"You left me in the woods to die." He reminded her. "I think that's all the information you're going to need." Mars narrowed her eyes, but agreed. This was really Stiles' idea, but for once it was actually a decent one.

Mars walked over to Allison's locker. "Hey, Allison, right?" She grabbed the girls attention.

"Yeah." Allison closed her locker and smiled.

"I'm Mars." She greeted. "Nice to meet you."

"You too." They stood there awkwardly for a minute, Mars wasn't entirely sure how this was supposed to go, or if Scott had even talked to this girl before. Mars looked back over at Scott, who urged her using his eyes. He really had to like this chick to be cashing in a favor. Not that he didn't have several more with how much BS she put him through.

Mars cleared her throat. "So, I didn't know if you made any friends yet- which sounds a lot worse coming out of my mouth than it did in my head. But anyways me and my friends-" She pointed behind herself at Scott who waved timidly, and Stiles, who was talking to Macy and being slightly twitchier and over expressive than normal. Mars figured he was talking about Lydia. Allison couldn't help but wonder if she was pointing to the right group, because they didn't look like they would hang out together. At all. Back in San Francisco she could usually tell who associated with who, but maybe it was different here? She couldn't tell yet. "Were wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime? Maybe Friday night?" Mars suggested. Allison smiled, getting ready to agree after she'd seen Scott, but Lydia came over in all her shining glory and cut Allison's answer short.

"That jacket is absolutely killer. Where'd you get it?" Lydia questioned, Allison looked down and answered; "My mom was a buyer for a boutique back in San Francisco."

"And you are my new best friend." Lydia turned to Mars, "Sorry." Making Mars raise an eyebrow, so they were best friends now? That was news to Mars. Jackson seemed to appear from nowhere. "Hey, Jackson." Lydia greeted her long time boyfriend.

"So, this weekend, there's a party." Lyd informed Allison, clearly, Lydia wanted the new girl in her group.

"A party?"

"Yeah–Friday night. You should come." Jackson added, throwing his arm around Lyd. "Mars, you're coming, right?"

"Oh, I'm invited?" Mars feigned surprise. She knew it would come next with the whole charade going on. Game night definitely wasn't going to be on anymore. Not when there was gonna be pills, booze and sex. The boys would kill her for rejecting the invitation anyways.

"What would a party be without the infamous Mars Moss." Jackson insinuated, Mars liked the ring it had 'infamous'.

"I guess, yeah. Sure. I'll try to make it." Mars agreed and leaned back against the lockers. "Allison?"

"Uh, I can't. It's family night this Friday. Thanks for asking." Allison looked over at Mars for a second, and Allison knew the strange girl knew that she was lying even without saying anything. Never had she seen a pair of such expressive eyes, it was almost a little frightening. Allison could see her relax and tune out the conversation. Mars closed her eyes and it looked almost like she was swaying.

"Well, I was going to–" Was the first thing Mars heard after she'd been tuning life out. She did that sometimes, the whole zoning thing.

"Perfect–You're coming." Lydia told Allison/

"You never really had a choice" Mars entered the conversation again.

"I got that impression." Allison laughed. "Are you going to come to the practice?"

"No, I can't. My mom-" Mars started, remembering her 'detention' that was really just an excuse for her mum to hold her hostage for a lecture.

"Oh don't be a baby, Moss." Lydia hooked arms with her and started to pull her down the hallway. "Come to practice!"

"I- whatever." Rejecting any sort of suggestion of Martin's would without fail prove futile. So she just gave in, she wasn't exactly looking forward to her moms presence anyhow.

* * *

Practice was abnormal. Scott, weak, asthmatic, scrawny Scott was playing _amazingly_. Everyone in the stands had been brought to their feet by at least one of the saves. "Go Scott!" Mars shouted over everyone else, Scott smiled, even though she couldn't see it through his helmet. Maybe now some of these other people would know his name now.

"Mars!" Mary had finally found her daughter, she was walking too fast and her spike heels were sinking into the grass.

"Bollocks" Mars cursed, looking to the left where she saw Mary struggling to reach her.

"Mars, my classroom. Now." Mary demanded with her teeth clenched. Lydia pretended like she heard nothing and continued chatting with a slightly confused Allison who was looking between the Moss woman that looked a little too much alike. The connection her math teacher was Mars' mom hadn't quite sunk in until then.

"Fine, yeah, whatever." Mars kicked her legs around behind her, grabbing the bars below the next row up and jumped down, there were too many people to try and get through so it seemed like the better of her options. Mary had already begun to head back, Mars trailed behind begrudgingly until her mum stopped short and turned around when they reached the schools back entrance.

"I want this conversation to be civil." Mary started.

"Me too." Mars agreed.

"Why did you blow me off?"

"Because I'm tired of getting yelled at." Mars stressed, throwing her arms out to her sides."I'm just tired, Mummy."

"And you think I'm not?" Mary challenged.

"No, that's not what I'm trying to say." Mars sighed, this is why she didn't like to talk to Mary, everything was always misconstrued.

Crossing her arms Mary asked; "What _are_ you trying to say?"

"I'm trying to tell you that I can't talk to you" She confessed, there wasn't any yelling yet, maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Well then we're on the same page." Mary agreed.

"Evidently."

"How was your night?"

"Fine. Slept well."

"That's good." There was awkward silence on both ends for a few moments. "Will you be coming home tonight?"

"Scott and Stiles wanted to go look for Scott's inhaler, thought I might join them."

"No."

"No?" Mars raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"

"Because I don't believe you" Mary replied, attempting a shred of honesty. There was no way she spent every waking moment with the same two boys. In fact, Mary was convinced that should she allow Mars to go, she would only just go and get high and pregnant."You spend too much time with them."

"Well, I'm sorry that I try and fill my time with people I like?" Though Marys suspicions weren't entirely unjustified, they were wrong. Yes, Mars liked to do activities that weren't exactly… ethical or age appropriate, but 9/10 times, she really was with those two.

"What kind of example are you setting for your sister?"

"Mum. Nay can make her own choices." Mars commented. "Her well-being doesn't hinge on whether or not I decide to come home after school."

Mary shook her head. "I'm trying. My very hardest not to yell at you right now." Mars widened her eyes, _what did she do now?_ "I want you home in two hours." Mary didn't give her the option. "Go with Scott and Stiles if you have to, but you _will_ be home for dinner. Got it?"

"And what if I just leave?" Mars threatened, getting in her mothers face. Mary looked around, giving her daughter a death glare- this was her place of work.

"You're embarrassing me." Mary spat.

"No one is around!" Mars threw her arms out my her sides a second time.

Mary crossed her arms over her chest, avoiding the incredulous look her daughter was giving her. "Look, you do what you think is right." Knowing she couldn't stop Mars no matter what she did, Mary just decided to let her do whatever she wanted. She was beyond done with this bullshit.

Mars stayed calm, "Careful what you wish for." Without another word or expression of any sort, she walked away. She didn't know where she was going, or if she was going to go home in the near future, but she did know she wanted to be as far away from this place as possible. It must have been miles she went before she looked at her phone:

From: McCall

_Where are you?_

From: Little Stilinski

_Dude, can't find you, its been 10 minutes, we're gonna head out soon_

From: Don Butler

_That looked tense, you good babe?_

From: Big A.J.

_I'll talk to her_

From: Lydia Martin

_Hey Mars, just wondering if you wanted to hang out with me tonight? Just girls?-Lydia_

To: McCall

**I don't know, I'll call you later.**

To: Little Stilinski

**Did you find Scott's inhaler? Sorry for bouncing.**

To: Don Butler

**Yeah, I'm good**

To: Big A.J.

**Don't worry about it, thanks though.**

To:Lydia Martin

**Its actually really bad timing right now, I can't tonight,**

Mars managed to make it home before her two hours was up, exactly a minute before, which she considered to be an impressive feat. Everyone was already home except Sayid when she got there. Nay was quiet for the most part, she just waved as Mars walked to her door through the kitchen, A.J. had his door open, he was listening to Tim McGraw and playing waste basket basketball.

Her bedroom door was locked as it always was, so she pulled a pin out of her pocket and picked the lock having long since lost the key. Thankfully, only the cat could get in and out because of the little cat door she put in with babysitting money. She'd had her cat since she was 5, he was an old and fat tabby cat named The Doctor, but for the most part, she just called him Doc. He stared a lot, rather than doing normal cat things… whatever that means.

The room had been the same for six years now, the same burgundy walls and Breakfast at Tiffany's poster. Which; she'd actually never seen, she just thought Hepburn was beautiful. The floor was cherry hardwood and it was covered with a fluffy white toss rug and a tan papasan chair that her darling Doc had claimed his own. The desk in the corner doubled as a vanity with a trifold mirror sitting on top of it and her bar had a ruffly white comforter, sheets to match the walls and one too many pillows. The only two things that had changed were the growing number of prints and Polaroids being haphazardly tacked to the walls and her old violin collecting more and more dust.

"What's up, Doc?" She asked the giant cat, picking him up from her chair and bringing him over to her bed. She planted a kiss on his head. Her cell buzzed again.

From: Lydia Martin

_What about Friday, after the Scrimmage, before the party? You can help with prep._

To: Lydia Martin

**Sounds great, do I need to bring anything?**

"I'm confused, Doctor." Mars started, she'd been thinking about her threat to her mother for hours. "Can you tell me what to do?" _Meow._ "Is that a no?" The cat was silent "Is that a yes?" _Meow _"Should I go for good? Pack up my closet and hit the road?" Again, there was silence. "You want me to stay so you can stay fat, don't you?" _Meow. _"You're a little shit." _Meow._

Family dinner was just as strained as it always was, from the outside normal but if anyone looked through the curtains they could see how much everyone couldn't stand each other. The sideways glances, the half ass attempts at conversation, it was no wonder Mars locked everyone out. Anywhere but home she took her time getting from point A to point B, but not here. The second she took care of the dishes she bolted back into her room, locking the door behind her as always.

Books were kept under her bed in storage bins, the room itself wasn't very big so she didn't have the space for a bookshelf. Anyhow, she opened one of the boxes and pulled out the first book she saw. This time it was _In Cold Blood_ by Truman Capote.

Too bad she didn't get to start it after she'd made herself comfortable. "It's been a while since you've done that one." She commented, nonchalant as Stiles pulled himself through the window and toppled to the ground.

"I'm just glad your rooms on the first floor." He pushed himself off and patted down his sweater to make sure everything was in tact.

Mars rolled her eyes, her book still opened up on her lap. "Did you need something?"

"No, not really. Scott's working and I'm bored." Stiles opened up the first drawer of her dresser, moving the T-shirts to the side and grabbing a snickers from the candy stash.

"So you came to Alcatraz?" Mars dog-eared the page.

Stiles shrugged laying down on his back opposite of her, he saw her phone flashing-

_**1 new message**_

_**Lydia Martin**_

-across the screen and he shot up. "Woah. Hold up. You're texting _Lydia? _And she's responding? Like _The _Lydia. _My_ Lydia?"

"Give me back my phone." Mars held out her hand, Stiles pouted and placed it back in her palm.

"What does she want?" Stiles questioned a little louder than necessary.

"To hang out?" Mars guessed "I think she just wants me to get alcohol."

From: Lydia Martin

_No, you don't need to. _

"Or not?" Mars added to her prior comment. "Well, whatever it is, I'm sure she wants something."

"Or she thinks your friend is adorable and wants you to hook a sister up?" Stiles sounded like he was joking, but they both knew he wasn't joking at all.

"Sure Stiles, I'm sure that's it." She laid down in her sea of pillows, Stiles cracked open the candy bar and laid down beside her, taking too big of a bite. "So did you find the inhaler?" Mars asked him, looking up at the ceiling.

"You'll never guess who had it. Derek Hale." He answered, still chewing.

"He's the really fit one, aye?"

"When" Stiles swallowed what he could. "When did you ever see him?"

"My brothers yearbook. He was a senior when A.j. was a freshman." She explained, opening up the book in her hands again.

"Ah." Stiles continued eating, he was always eating.

"So why did Derek have the inhaler?"

"I guess it was on his property. He's kinda intimidating." Something in Stiles voice was a little off, maybe it was intrigue? She couldn't quite place the tone.

"Do you fancy him?" Mars took the next logical jump to a conclusion.

"What? No, I don't _fancy_ him. You- you weirdo." Stiles shook his head and changed the subject. "Dad asked about you."

"Yeah?" Mars read a little of the page. "What about?"

"Wanted to know if you were staying the night again." Stiles put the snickers wrapper on the nightstand and put his hands behind his head.

"Oh. No. I guess not. My mom thinks its weird, wants me to stop hanging around you and Scott so much." Mars sighed. "She thinks I'm lying about where I am."

"Unfortunately you're not." Stiles agreed. "Are you gonna hook me up with Lydia?" Mars knew it was only a matter of time before Stiles went back to Lydia, it was surprising he'd gone so long without dropping her name after she'd been mentioned.

"Sure, Stiles. As soon as she breaks it off with Jackson, why not." Stiles smiled and took his had she'd stolen off her head and put it on his.

"Today is a good day."

Mars couldn't focus on her book with him in the same room, she decided to try and nap instead. Curling herself into him, she laid her head on his chest. He put his arm around her shoulders. "I wish you didn't smell so weird." Mars commented, scrunching up her nose.

"I smell like a man." Stiles grinned picking up her book and flipping through it before remembering he didn't particularly like reading.

"No, you smell like you didn't shower after practice and just put on a clean shirt." Mars closed her eyes anyways.

"Guilty."

"You're nasty." She shook her head, moderately relaxed.

"I try." He paused, tossing the book to the side. "So you and that Butler kid?"

"Stiles, can't you see I'm trying to sleep?" Her eyes were still closed.

"Oh. Okay." Stiles noted, he really was pretty curious about it, he'd overheard Jackson and Don in the locker room saying some… things he wasn't supposed to hear. Frankly, Stiles hears everything. "Am I comfortable?" He asked, saving the conversation for later.

"When you're not talking." Mars mumbled, starting to drift.

"Gotcha." The cat climbed up to Sit on Stiles, just below Mars' head. "Hey Doc." Stiles pet Doc on the head before picking up the only framed picture in the whole room. It was of him, Mars, Scott and his Mom at the San Diego Zoo. He remembered it well even though it was nine years ago. Mars was missing three teeth in it with one about halfway back in, Stiles was missing two and Claudia had just pulled out Scott's first loose tooth. Mary had taken the picture, or so he recalled. Stiles traced his thumb over his mom's face and gave a sad smile."She really was beautiful." Mars opened her eyes, he was speaking in the past tense and that only ever meant one thing.

"Yeah she was." Mars agreed, she always forgot to put the picture away when Stiles was over, ,it only ever made him sad. And her happy go lucky, hyperactive, twitchy Stiles wasn't supposed to be sad. Ever. Not when it was in her power, the longest week of her life had been the week after Claudia died, and she _never, __**never **_could see him like that again

"I miss her, a lot." Stiles bit the inside of his cheek, Mars leaned up and kissed the outside of it, hugging a little tighter to his side. "You miss her too?" Mars nodded. "Just got some dust in my eye there." Stiles laughed and rubbed his eyes. Mars took the frame out of his hand and leaned over him, placing it face down on the nightstand. "Thanks."

"Anytime." Mars smiled, both of them fell asleep not long after.

BREAK

"So, why'd you invite me over?" Mars asked Lydia as she tapped the keg Jackson had so kindly (or forcibly) brought out to the pool for them.

"I felt like it." Lydia answered, sitting like a princess in the shade. Mars was more than slightly annoyed that it seemed she was doing all of the work.

"Well, we've been in the same classes since kindergarten and this is a first." Mars reminded her. Seriously though. This was _the first time_ they had ever intentionally seen each other outside of class.

"My mom thinks I need more girlfriends. You and Allison seem to be the most tolerable." Lydia lied, Mars bought it.

"Thanks, I guess?" Mars squinted her eyes in the sun.

"Besides, your best friends with the new best player in town." Lydia added to her prior statement.

"There it is." Mars commented, sitting beside Lydia and grabbing a wine cooler. She cracked it open with her key chain and took a drink. "So this is about Scott." It wasn't a question.

"Huh. That's his name?"

"Yeah, but I'm guessing you knew that already?" Lydia should know by now that Mars wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of buying the stupid act. "Wanna go for a swim?" Sitting around was boring and preparing was irritating. She wanted to do something fun.

"No."

"Fair enough." Mars downed a bit more of the cooler.

"Is that what you're wearing?" Lydia looked her classmate over, black skinny jeans, a black halter, a blue flannel tied around her waist and a pair of black heeled boots wasn't quite going to cut it for one of her parties. Her hair was in braided pigtails. _Pigtails. _

"Yes?" Mars arched an eyebrow, she didn't see any problem with it.

"You're boobs are smaller than mine, but I'm sure something will fit." Lydia stood up and began to walk into her house, Mars finished off her bottle. "Well come on." Lydia turned around and gestured for Mars to follow. Which she did, but she took her own sweet time doing it. Lyd ended up picking out a long sleeve emerald colored dress with a _plunging _V-neck and a short hem. "See, I could never that off." Lydia smiled and retreated back into her closet to find something for herself. It was a bit of a double sided compliment considering Lydia was essentially telling Mars she had small tits. Mars let her hair down and shook it out.

When the sun finally retreated and the moon came up, people started piling in, Don being one of the firsts. He found Mars, Lydia, and Jackson in the kitchen and greeted Mars with a kiss on the cheek. Mars' brows knit together _what was with the sudden PDA?_ She wasn't enjoying herself yet, she wasn't nearly as fucked up as she wanted to be."So, double date?" Lydia suggested when she saw Don, who's face said he was about to agree.

"Uh. Date?" Mars put her empty cup down on the counter. "No." She shook her head. "Don and I, we're not dating." She clarified.

"That's not what he says." Jackson raised his beer to his lip, smirking.

"And what does he say?" Don was looking his friend, making one of those _dude, stop talking_ sort of faces.

"That you're hot as hell and he would very much like to take you on a date." Don attempted recovery, it should've worked- it would have worked with most other girls. But not Mars.

"Great. But no thank you." She poured herself a couple shots "Single suits me fine." Mars moved into the newly forming crowd, taking her shots while she walked. "Stiles!" She yelled when she spotted him about twenty minutes later. Almost the whole lacrosse team was around him. Mars reached the group and took a spot between Stiles and Danny, kissing both of their cheeks. "Have you guys had anything to drink?" She offered to grab something for them, not thinking to look and see if they had anything in their hands, which they did.

"I'm sure not as much as you." Watson got into the conversation. To be honest she didn't know his first name… Ryan? Dylan? she was pretty sure there was a "Y" in there someplace.

"That sounds like a personal problem." Mars replied, winking at him. "How long have you guys been here?"

"Half hour I think" Danny answered.

"Blimey, how'd I miss you lot?"

"What've you been doing?" Stiles asked her.

"Listening to Lydia falling completely off her trolley, oh and watched this one daft girl fall arse over tit! It was brilliant." Everyone looked at her confused.

"...what?" The team said collectively.

"Bloody hell."

Stiles sighs. "Allow me to translate for you guys. She listened to Lydia's descent into insanity and watch some stupid girl fall on her face. it was cool."

"Why didn't you just say that?"

"I did." Mars noted taking Stiles drink from his hand.

"I should not have understood a word of that." Stiles took his drink back from her.

"Probably not." She agreed. "Where's Scott and Allison?" Stiles pointed to the crowd, the new couple was dancing closely, it was really… cute? Well the idea of it was, the dancing itself wasn't that cute, more hot.

"You wanna dance?" A voice came from behind her and a hand met her waist, Mars and Stiles turned around at the same time- Stiles thought the invitation had been for him.

"Sure" Mars grabbed the man's hand, he was tall dark and handsome and he pulled off that whole mysterious thing. Her head was a little too cloudy to make any connections.

"Derek?!" Stiles glared. "No, she doesn't want to dance." Stiled held her other hand which she pulled away from.

"Oh, Derek!" Mars looked him up and down, recalling their conversation the night before. Age did him well. "You grew up nice." She started walking to the floor with him despite Stiles voice behind them asking 'what are you doing here' and cursing 'shit'. Derek knew exactly what he was doing, he always knew exactly what he was doing. Derek dancing looked a bit odd, he was too stoic to be doing so. But hey, he was hot and he smelled miles better than the sweaty high school boys she was used to. Mars made eye contact with Scott and waved, not a care in the world. She had no reason at all to be wary of him.

Scott saw Derek and tried to focus back on Allison but it was hard with his building anger. _What was Derek doing?_ _Why was he here?_ Mars saw him freaking out and running back into the house, that sobered her up real fast. "Sorry, I gotta go." She told Derek. "It's been fun." She assured him before chasing after Scott.

He was long gone.

* * *

**A/N: So I hope everyone is enjoying this so far! I would love to know what you think! I'd love to give a special thank you to Ashley for Beta reading my stupidly long chapters and also to Bleeding Blue Kunoichi for the review! For all things BOB you can go to my tumblr URL (redconstance)! **

**Thank y'all, **

**Bri**


	3. Blackouts are a Bitch

**Beast of Burden**

**Chapter Three**

**Blackouts are a Bitch**

* * *

"_Nearly all men can stand adversity,_

_but if you want to test a man's _

_character, give him power."_

_-Abraham Lincoln_

Slivers of sunlight made their way through the curtains, shining patterns on the ruffled comforter. The body tucked between the sheets was going in and out of sleep, laying in a pool of drool she wasn't yet conscious enough to realize was there. Her phone was on low volume, but the ringtone sounded like a police siren in her ear when it started going off, then the cat decided to start nudging her. Frankly, this whole waking up thing was becoming highly unpleasant too quickly. Mars hit the glowing green button and then the speaker before putting it down and closing her eyes again. "What?" She mumbled into the pillow.

"Hey, are you home?" Stiles' voice came over the speaker, she wanted to hush him for being too loud. Instead, she looked around the room she'd fallen asleep in.

The cat and the burgundy walls were enough to convince her it was her room. Unfortunately, she had no clue how or when she'd gotten there.. "Yeah, I guess." She answered, pulling the covers over her head.

"How'd you get there?" Stiles questioned, last night had been a mess with everything that went on with Scott, he'd had to pick the kid up on the side of the road an hour ago.

"I rode my magic carpet." She mumbled, not wanting to think. It was too early and she was too hungover.

Stiles sighed. "Seriously Mars, I feel bad for ditching you."

"I'm sure I was fine. I don't even remember you ditching." She confessed, pulling Doc into her chest and petting the fat tabby. Besides, he hadn't really ditched considering that she hadn't gone there with him.

"What do you _mean_ you don't remember?" He sounded astonished as he was. Which was, like, a lot.

"I don't know, last night was weird." She kissed her cat.

"Did you take something?" Mars' nasty habit of taking anything anyone put in front of her concerned him. A lot. Especially because she never asked any questions. She'd had Ambien, Desoxyn, Ativan, OxyContin, Adderall- and that was only the prescription shit. He honestly didn't want to think of the ecstasy, MDMA and self popped rohypnol he'd heard about through the grapevine. Yeah, she was always the life of the party, but that didn't mean she was okay.

"I don't know. Probably, it's not a big deal." She wanted to hang up, bored now.

He repeated; "Do you remember anything?"

"I remember Scott freaking out… I think I may have been in the woods at some point…" Mars drifted, blanking on the rest. "Vaguely." In other words, '_yeah, I've got no clue._' "Can I call you later, mate?"

"T-the Preserve? Why were you on The Preserve? Was Derek with you?" Stiles asked frantically, leaving her to question his concern with The Preserve.

"If I remembered, I'd tell you." She reminded him. "And who? Hale? I've never even met him." She shook her head, why the hell did Stiles think she'd been with Derek?

Stiles made some noises that sounded like he was having more than a little trouble forming words. "You danced with him _last night._" He nearly squeaked.

"I probably danced with a lot of people last night." Mentally adding, _maybe more than that._ "You can't expect me to remember the one." She rolled her eyes, thinking back. In fact, she didn't remember dancing with anybody.

"You'd remember." Mars heard fumbling just outside her room. "Damnit unlock your window." Mars got up begrudgingly and opened the window for him. He hoisted his bony self up in, stumbling, but not falling this time around and hung up the phone, tucking it back in his pocket. Mars laid right back down and rolled onto her stomach, pulling the blankets over her head. Stiles yanked the comforter off. "No, no, up. We're talking."

"Stiles, why are you yelling?" She whispered.

"I'm not yelling." Stiles lowered his voice and scratched the back of his neck. "Come on, I need to talk to you." He stressed and sat beside her, she still wasn't going to sit up anytime soon. "Think, why were you in The Preserve." He encouraged.

"I think I wanted to go swimming, I don't remember." She blew him off.

"There's a pool at Lydia's." Stiles shot down her logic.

"What are you? My dad?"

"Yes." He joked, then shook her, "Come _on_ it's important."

"Why is it important, Stiles?"

"For reasons. Was Derek with you?"

"I already told you, I don't remember meeting Derek." She knew that Stiles was persistent, but that didn't keep her from getting annoyed with him.

"How- how." He began to question before realizing it would be best to just not ask questions. "Nevermind. Just think."

"I was alone," She recalled. "I definitely went in the lake. Happy?"

"How do you know?"

"I don't remember anyone and I smell like lake water. Satisfactory?" She snapped.

"Yeah, whatever." Stiles glanced down at his phone like he was waiting for something. The past couple day's had just been strange with Scott getting bitten and storming out of the party. Not to mention the overwhelming feeling Stiles was giving her that he knew something she didn't.

"What is going on with you and Scott?" Mars asked on the calm side, but her frustration evident.

Stiles opened his mouth to speak and squinted a little bit as he stopped himself. "Nothing, it's… nothing." He settled on, knowing all too well she wasn't gonna buy into that- but was he supposed to do? Just out and say 'Guess what? Scott's a werewolf now.' Yeah, he wasn't feeling like that would go over too well.

"You can talk to me, whatever it is." She assured him, scanning his overly expressive face for hints. She'd softened her voice, knowing that was usually how she got her way.

Stiles squinted a little again and started tapping his foot on the ground. "I know."

"Alright then, so what is it?" Stiles looked at her again, she smiled, with her teeth.

Stiles stood up, knowing all too well that if he stayed he was gonna let the cat out of the bag. "I'll talk to you later." He made a break for the window.

"You woke me up, you're talking now." Mars didn't bother to get up, she just looked at him and he made the mistake of turning around to see her doing it. "_Stiles."_

"Look, just let me talk to Scott, okay?" He reasoned.

Mars' mouth dropped slightly. "Are you kidding me right now? Please tell me you're kidding."

"I just-" He attempted.

"You just what, Stiles? Huh? What, all of the sudden you guys are keeping secrets from me? What the_ fuck_?" She cursed, looking him over. "Is it something to do with last night? Did I say something?" Mars scanned her memory for some clue that wasn't there. This wasn't about her.

"No, it's- yeah. Just, don't worry about it." Stiles stumbled over his words, but that was nothing out of the ordinary.

"... don't worry about it?" Mars repeated, cocking an eyebrow and nodding slowly. "Seriously? That's all you got?" She shook her head and let out a small, bitter laugh. "Fuck you, man."

"_**Mars**_" Stiles stressed, but she wasn't about to let him get a word in after that. Secrets didn't sit well, at least not when he was keeping them from her.

"Window." She pointed, her voice taking on a calmer tone, Stiles hesitated, but decided he should just go before he fucked anything up further.

After he left, Mars tried to sleep with no avail. It was no use anyways, once she was up she was up. So she stood, and she stretched her arms above her head and extended them behind her back. She peeled off her dress from the night before and let it fall to the ground, replacing it with a fluffy light green bathrobe and slipping a pair of slippers on her feet. She walked to the bathroom and washed off any and all traces of makeup and brushed her teeth, then she headed downstairs for a much needed cup of tea. "Hey Daddy." She greeted the man sitting at the counter with his face masked behind the morning paper. He lowered it to look at her and smiled before folding up the paper and putting it down. Mars hadn't seen him at all since they'd gotten back from his parents.

Sayid was a handsome man in his late 40's, black hair, hazel eyes and a dark complexion. He was a brilliant cardiac surgeon, too. "Morning Darling, I put a kettle on." He informed his eldest daughter. "You want a cuppa?" He questioned. Where Mars' accent was somewhere between England and California, her Cambridge born and bred fathers was the same as it had been for his entire life, never wavering unless he was speaking to his mother. In which case, they were speaking Arabic, so it didn't really matter.

"Yeah, I'd love some." She smiled, taking a seat beside her father and glancing at the headline. It was about that body in the woods. She cursed the thing, everything was just fine until they went looking for it.

"How's school?" Sayid inquired, he was never good at talking to Mars. A.j. he could handle, cars, politics, philosophy, college. It was never hard to talk to his boy. Ineas was easy, too. She was the princess, they didn't have to talk, he just had to buy her things and she'd be happy. Marsi, though? It was like he didn't know her at all. In fact, he couldn't even understand her until she was four. All the therapists they'd taken her to gave her speech impediment some fancy name, idioglossia, if he recalled correctly. They said it was the result of being in a multi-lingual household, but he didn't quite buy it. Because when she _did_ finally speak English, it was coherent. Of course, she stumbled a bit at first, but it seemed as though that little language of her own didn't exist anymore outside of the Stilinski boy.

Sayid recalled anytime Stiles' tried to translate for her how angry Mars would get. "**Nola, jul S**!" She would say, which he eventually figured out meant "_No, just Stiles_." Back to the original point, Mars had always been the difficult one. Always.

"It's okay." Mars answered his inquiry about the hell she was forced to sit in everyday. "I like English. That count?"She'd always loved english though, so no, that really wasn't a surprise.

"No." He laughed, he meant attendance wise, but he didn't feel like clarifying. "How was the party?" Mars cleared her throat, she hadn't known Sayid knew about it.

"Uh… Good. Loads of fun." She lied, or maybe she didn't… it… her memories of last night were shot straight to hell at this point.

"Good to hear." Sayid got up as the kettle whistled, grabbing two mugs from the cupboard, one blue, one yellow. He poured the water and looked at all the different bags in front of him, dropping an english breakfast in both. He was pretty sure that was what she drank, he dropped a sugar cube in it for good measure. He put the yellow mug in her hands and cupped her face, looking at her big blue eyes. "So beautiful," he commented and kissed her forehead.

"Thanks, Da." She smiled and took a sip, nearly spitting it out. Partially because it was too hot and also because she'd been expecting earl grey black. "Where's everybody?" She tried to mask her distaste.

"Mum and Nay went shopping, and A.j. is… somewhere, work maybe." He blew it off, mostly because he was just guessing.

"He works nights, Dad." Mars pointed out, Sayid went back to his paper.

"Oh, maybe with a girlfriend then." He tried, he was seeing that one girl last he checked.

"He doesn't have a girlfriend." Mars sighed, knowing her dad worked too much to really know much of anything, but what frustrated her even more was the note witting right in front of her. "He went to the station with Sheriff, wants to help out." Mars slapped the note down over the newspaper.

"Ah, I can't read that chicken scratch." Sayid brushed the note off.

Mars stood up with her mug in front of her, silent for a moment. "You want to watch a movie?" She offered.

"Yeah, I've only got a couple hours though." He agreed.

"What's in a couple hours?" She asked. "It's your day off, Dad." Mars' brows knit together creating a series of lines on her freckly forehead.

"I've got meetings." He looked at her, feigning frustration. Mars bit the inside of her cheek. He wasn't lying to her because he didn't want to spend time with her, he was lying to her because he didn't want to deal with his wife when she got home. He wanted to be long gone for the night by then.

"Oh… well, okay I guess."

"Go put something in, I'll be over in a second." He got up and grabbed a jiffypop, the Moss family didn't do microwaves as per the request of his darling wife Mary. "This isn't gonna be a chick flick is it?"

"Nay is the one who watches chick flicks, Dad." Mars responded, a twinge of sadness in her voice, first he gave her Nay's drink and now that. She was slowly remembering why she shut herself in her room for in the first place. "Is V for vendetta okay?"

"Remember, remember the fifth of November." Sayid smiled, moving the popcorn's container around on the stovetop.

"The gunpowder treason and plot," Mars exaggerated her accent to sound more like her fathers.

"I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason-"

"Should ever be forgot." Mars finished the little saying with a smile before her dad focused on the little tray beginning to heat up.

* * *

Allison took her math book out of her locker, getting ready to go to class. "You liking it here so far?" Mars asked, eyes following all of the students passing by.

"Well it's interesting." Allison acknowledged, not having formed a real opinion yet. She really liked Scott though, that much was for sure… even if he did ditch her. Stiles stopped at Scotts locker to talk to him across the hall from Allison and Mars, he was avoiding eye contact at all costs, urging Scott out of the hallway.

"What was that about?" Allison closed her locker and leaned against them like Mars was, people watching. Mars looked over her shoulder.

"Nothing important." Mars dismissed, giving a small smirk that was supposed to be a smile. "So, did Scott talk to you yet?"

Allison looked down, a smile on her face and nodded. "Yeah, he did, actually."

"And what did you say?" Mars pressed, hoping it was a yes so that she wasn't making new friends for nothing.

"I'll give him a second chance." Allison confirmed, still having the same smile plastered on her face.

"Does that mean you'll still be at game night Friday?" Mars reminded her. To be honest, they'd both forgotten about her invite entirely.

"I guess? I mean, do you want me to be?" Allison pulled her books into her chest.

"Well I don't see why not" Mars didn't feel any need to retract her invitation, overall, she really did like Snow White.

"Yeah, of course" Ally nodded. "I mean, is there still going to be a game night? That seemed… kinda tense." She referred to that little avoidance she'd bore witness too just a minute ago.

Mars shook her head. "He'll crack sooner than later, he always does."

"What do you want him to tell you?"

"I don't know just yet. Hoping its nothing too bad. He's such a bloody tosser." Mars ran a hand through her hair.

"I've been meaning to ask you, are you from here or from…" Allison didn't want to seem rude by messing up England and Australia, so she just led the answer.

"England." Mars smiled. "I was born over there."

"Then why are you here?" It slipped before she could stop herself.

"Long story short, my Mum wanted to be in the states, dad wanted to be in England and they split it up so we didn't have to move. So school years in Beacon Hills and holidays in Oxford."

"That actually cleared a lot up." More kids passed through the hallways, people watching was always entertaining.

"What about you? You said you moved a lot?" Mars turned the conversation on the new girl, not really in much of mood to talk about herself.

"Yeah, my dad, its just kinda what he does. Never more than a year." Allison sighed and bit the inside of her lip.

"You sound kind of bummed by that." Moss observed.

"Yeah, I mean, being rooted somewhere, being close with someone like you, Stiles and Scott are- I wish I had something like that." Allison confessed.

Mars stopped leaning and pulled Allisons shoulders off so she stood straight. "Oi, chin up. I promise, as long as you're here you can count on us." Despite Mars' imposing nature, Allison smiled widely. "Good. Well, mother's class awaits." Mars nodded and began to head off down the hallway with the warning bell.

"Hey, Mars?" Allison called after her, Mars turned back.

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing Wednesday?" Allison paused, looking to gage some sort of reaction. "I'm busy tomorrow but what do you say we hang out after school Wednesday? No boys?"

"Sounds great." Mars smiled, surprising Allison at the sight of her teeth. Not that they were bad or anything, she just hadn't seen a genuine smile from that girl until then. But Mars was excited by the offer, to have a break from all of the people she was so familliar with. She almost couldn't remember why she'd been wary of Allison in the first place.

"Cool." Allison nodded. "Well, don't get detention again."

"I make no promises." Mars promptly turned on her heel and headed towards her mothers classroom and then the next class, laughing to herself whenever she'd see Stiles run off in the opposite direction. He may have one the battle, but she was dominating the war.

Without Scott and Stiles distracting her at every turn her day was just boring, just running through the motions even to the end of the day and after school. Don had sent her a message before practice, telling her to meet him on the preserve afterwards in their spot. So she did, because what else did she have to do?

So now, Mars sat straddling Don, who was busy kissing her neck while she reached around her jeans pockets looking for a lighter. She let the destroyed denim fall out of her hands and pulled away from Don, "You got a light, mate?" She asked, he nodded, pulling it out of his backpacks top pocket. She put the blunt in her mouth just before he lit it. She took a drag, closing her eyes then removing it from between her lips, letting the smoke out through her nose. Don replaced it with his own lips, Mars didn't return the kiss. He ran a hand up her bare side until it hit her bra.

"So, getting friendly with the new girl?" He asked her, she put the blunt in his mouth and he took a hit.

"She's genuine." Mars ran a hand down his chest and smoked a little more. "I like genuine people."

"I guess, yeah." He agreed, eyes going over her and kissing her again when he had the chance. He couldn't figure out what was wrong with her, or why her indifference pissed him off as much as it did. Shouldn't it be him that doesn't give a fuck? That was the way these things were supposed to go, right? In all the stories he heard about friends with benefits, the girl got attached, the guy was the one who strung her along. So what was wrong with him?

"Did you bring the stuff?" Mars asked, biting her lower lip, then smiling. There it was, yet another reminder that this entire thing was just about the sex and the drugs. Sometimes he thought he should say something to her about it, about how hard she went and how too frequent she did it. Don knew if he did that though, there was a good chance that she'd just shut him out completely. It was selfish of him to just let her destroy herself, but he couldn't pluck up the courage.

"Yeah." He reached into his discarded pants pocket and pulled out the bag of mushrooms. Mars got off of Don and adjusted her underwear before sitting beside him. She grabbed two and chewed them, they tasted dreadful. The two stayed quiet for a while, waiting for the effects to kick in. "Feel anything yet, babe?" Don voiced, tired of the silence.

Mars shrugged and ate another, cringing a little at the taste. These things were supposed to take about an hour, but she wasn't feeling too patient. "Not yet."

"Well, I'm gonna take a piss." Don announced and stood, brushing off the bits of earth that clung to him.

"Lovely." Mars commented as he walked away, she threw her shirt on over her head, not that it did much of anything with the sides cut out of it. Scrolling through her ipod for some music, she settled on 'Enjoy the Silence' before she heard footsteps approaching, resulting in her lowering the speakers volume.

"No, Stiles, not yet." Scott stressed, Stiles seriously needed to drop it. It wasn't that he didn't want Mars to know, he did in a way. But he felt like a freak, and the less people knew that he was a freak, the less people he could hurt.

"You don't understand how pissed she is, dude." Stiles grabbed Scott's shoulder, stopping him from walking any further into the preserve. "She's got some sort of freaky bullshit radar thing."

Scott shook his head. "No. Maybe you're just a really bad liar." Mars recognized the voices and listened closer.

"I'm a great liar," Stiles defended. "Look, the point is, we've gotta tell her. Soon. Yanno, before Mars figures it out and skins us alive for being dicks." Stiles took a few steps forward before stopping cold. Yeah, he was screwed.

Mars sat on a fallen log, a blunt between her fingers. The general absence of her ever present cocky smirk was enough to let him know that both he and Scott were done. "Hi," She piped up. Scott and Stiles exchanged semi-frantic looks, obviously trying to figure out some sort of excuse.

"Uh…" Scott started, Stiles had said her name while in earshot, so that narrowed down his options significantly. Mars raised her smoke to her lips and filled her lungs before exhaling a row of rings.

Mars' smirk returned. "Something you need to tell me, boys?"

"N-no."

"We were just saying that, uh," Stiles looked at her for a moment, seeing the gears turning in her head. "I've got nothing. Scott?" Stiles looked over to his other best friend, Scott pursed his lips a little and glared, giving Stiles what would best be described as a 'bitchface'. "Not Scott. Okay. Um. Right. So. We're just gonna go back this way now." Stiles started to back away, but he made the mistake of looking away from her kohl rimmed eyes when she raised an eyebrow above them. "And you, you are in your underwear. Great." Stiles scratched the back of his head. "Just, could ya- could ya put some pants on?" Scott looked at him, too, putting Stiles on the receiving end of yet another bitchface. "Are either of you going to speak real words or is it all up to me now?" Mars and Scott looked at eachother for a moment, not even communicating just knowing it would make Stiles squirm. Scott looked at Stiles again. "Jeeze, Scott, it's not like there's a choice." Stiles reasoned, he was about to let the cat out of the bag and Scotts expression let Stiles know that wasn't going to happen. "Can we all just use our words!" Stiles cracked under the pressure he'd placed on his own shoulders.

Mars giggled, she was feeling very giggly. "Nola."

Stiles gave her an incredulous look, "Uh-uh. Don't start with that. No Martian." He pleaded, using the name Ahmir had given his sisters made up language as a kid back when A.j. was convinced Mars was an alien.

"Fine." She agreed. "I'm waiting."

In Mars' opinion, Don made an appearance at the worst possible time. At least he'd put his pants back on. "Yo, babe, gimme the bag." He demanded while fastening his belt. "Oh, sup." He noted his two formerly benched teammates and nodded in their direction. Mars tossed him the bag and he chewed on his third, hoping it would make them kick in faster. "You want some?" Don offered, holding out the bag to Scott and Stiles.

"No, thank you. But I would very much like for you to put a shirt on." Stiles crossed his arms over his un-toned chest. "When did everyone get abs?" He questioned, looking over at Scott, who was less than impressed.

"I think we should go now," Scott declared.

"But-" Stiles tried to argue, knowing that if he didn't tell Mars now, he might not get another chance. He didn't want to be stuck between the two. Scott was still certain he didn't want her to know, less than twenty minutes ago he'd almost killed Stiles in the locker room and put Jackson in an ambulance. The less she knew, _seriously,_ was better. He knew her well, which meant he knew that she'd be there every step of the way… which wasn't a good thing in this case.

"Now, Stiles." Scott stressed, grabbing his arm and pulling him back towards the lacrosse field.

"Whatever" Don sat down, blowing them off. Mars watched them get smaller and smaller the farther they got. Even when she couldn't hear them anymore, she could still see Stiles' hyperactive motions and mannerisms. She tried not to smile, reminding herself how angry she was as she laid down. She'd get her answers soon.

What she didn't anticipate was how soon, or how little effort she'd have to put into getting them. She sat on her bed the next day, drowning in a sea of pillows with her cat on her lap, a cup of tea on her side table and reading Fannie Flagg's _Fried Green Tomatoes._ The window slid open, a noise she was all too familiar with. God forbid there should ever be a _real_ intruder one day- she'd be dead. "So here's the thing, M'n'M." Stiles' voice was the first, she heard another set of feet hit the hardwood all while never looking up. Doc didn't seem to care all that much either until Scott came in, when he began hissing and ran out his cat door. Mars' eyes followed the cat and she put the book down, _What was his deal?_

"You know there's this thing called a door? Great invention I hear." Mars remarked, raising the book back in front of her face and turning the page.

"So you know that thing, that you're mad at us for cause we didn't tell you, we're ready now."

Mars lowered the book slightly and looked him over before dog-earing the page and tossing it in front of her. "Well? Spill." The boys had hesitated for just a moment too long.

"Scott, you want to take this part?" Stiles voice raised an octave towards the end.

"No!" Scott nearly shouted. "This is _your idea_"

Stiles groaned, trying to figure out how to word it just so. "So, Scotts a werewolf." Yeah, never a tactful one.

Mars had made the mistake of taking a sip of her tea just before Stiles confession, she choked on it. "Whatever you're having I'll take 10." She proclaimed, a smile passing over her features.

"No. Seriously. Scott, do the eye thing." Stiles hit Scott on the chest with the back of his hand and turned his head over his shoulders to look at him.

"I don't know how, it just happens!" Scott exclaimed, sounding panicked.

Stiled groaned and sat in front of her. "Ugh. fine whatever. Remember that night, when he got bit?" Mars nodded. "Well, we think it was Derek."

"Okay- stop- stop." Mars put her mug back on the nightstand and shook her head. "I know you don't like him, but seriously?" She looked almost angry with them. "You don't need to lie to me."

"We're not lying." Stiles stressed. "How else do you explain Scott getting good at lacrosse. Mars, he got a girl." He proclaimed like it was an impossible feat.

"The real miracle would be if it was you, twitchy." Mars smirked, he'd definitely had his share of adderall today with the way he was acting. "What do you want?" She asked, giving up and thoroughly convinced everything they'd said so far was a lie. On the same hand though, she didn't know what was so bad that they had to tell such a blatant lie over.

"Excuse me, what?" Stiles blinked a few times, thinking he didn't hear her right.

"What do you want?" She repeated. "No bullshit. Get to the point. You're telling me this for a reason now tell me what it is." She reasoned, Scott had been so dead set against cluing her into anything yesterday that they must've needed her help. Even if she was still angry that they were lying to her.

"Well… thing is…" Stiles drifted.

Scott decided it was time for him to say something. "We need your help to dig up what could potentially be the other half of the body," He informed her. "It's on Dereks property, that's why we mentioned him." Scott decided to retract the earlier, true statement. Hey, the less she wanted to believe him the better.

"I'm in." She agreed, getting up to grab a sweater and put on a pair of boots.

"I knew you'd say that!" Stiles smiled, overly excited and giving Scott an _I told you so_ look. "I- I knew she'd say that." Stiles said a little quieter and pointed to the girl that had just grabbed her flashlight after receiving an unimpressed look.

"Werewolves, though? Really? You couldn't come up with something else? Why not a vampire or- or a Merman, a dragon perhaps?" Her sass wasn't welcome by Scott.

"No, we were serious about that, too." Stiles continued to try and convince her.

"Sure."

* * *

"You only brought two shovels?" Mars blinked a few times, like she wasn't seeing right. Stiles just kind of shrugged, one in his hands in the others in Scotts. "Fucking idiot" She shook her head.

"No need to be rude." Stiles remarked, she gave him an all too familiar roll of the eyes.

"Derek had to bury her with something. I'll go look for a shovel. You idiots don't fuck anything up while I'm gone, aye?" Both Stiles and Scott nodded and went to the mound of new dirt. Mars went off to search the perimeter of the hale house. It took a little longer than she'd expected and buried in a mound of tools that could certainly kill her, including a shotgun which she brought back with her for good measure. This Derek guy, from everything they said in the car, sounded like a freak. Hardly a dent had been made when she returned to the pair. Seriously, maybe 3 inches of dirt was gone.

"What's that?" Scott asked when he saw her holding it.

"Shotgun." Mars stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, she opened it up. "It's not loaded, so you can calm your tits." She announced tossing it to the side incase she needed to make a show of it later.

They all went to digging, and digging, and some more digging. Almost two hours of it… maybe more.

"You know this dirt stuff is a lot heavier than it looked." Stiles tossed another shovel full out of the hole they'd carved out.

"Do you have any muscle? At all? In your entire body?" Scott laughed at Mars' comment, Stiles mocked her when she looked away.

"This is taking way too long!" Scott exclaimed, beginning to worry about Derek coming back. Obviously an unloaded shotgun and Mars' tiny frame wouldn't even begin to scare that werewolf.

"Just keep going."

"What if he comes back?" Scott continued.

"Then we get the hell out of here." Stiles just continued digging.

"What if he catches us?" Scott wasn't about to let it drop.

"I'll stall, because I'm guessing Stiles' plan would be something along the lines of 'let's all run in different directions and hope for the best'" Mars rolled her eyes, hopping out of the hole for a drink of water. Grave diggin really was more of a workout than anticipated. Be she regretted nothing, she was actually having some sober fun.

"I like that plan." Stiles agreed. "Whoa, stop, stop, stop." He held his arm out in front of Scott when his shovel hit something moderately solid. Both he and Scott brushed away the dirt and began untying the knots, Mars peered over from above them.

"Hurry up"

"Yeah, I'm trying, did he have to tie the thing in like 900 knots?" Stiles remarked, struggling with a later one. When the fabric moved all three mates screamed in unison, the boys jumped out of the pit, knocking Mars over. She recovered quickly and peered over like the other two.

"What the hell is that?!" Stiles shouted, pointing at the animal head angrily.

"It's a wolf!" Scott moved closer, the smell was god awful, Mars covered her nose for a second.

"Yeah, I can see that! I thought you said you smelled blood! As in human blood!" Stiles and Scott maintained eye contact, the only thing running through Mars' mind was _why did he just say Scott _smelled_ blood._ All she could smell was rot, and only now that the creature was exposed. They were speaking in the past tense, not present.

"I told you something was different." Scott replied, keeping the conversation between men… boys really.

"This doesn't make sense." Stiles held his head.

"We've got to get out of here." Scott proclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah. Help me cover this up." The two began covering the wolf head, Mars was looking between them still. Were they… were they serious about all this? They really thought Scott was a werewolf. Fuck, was everyone completely off their trolley? Maybe she was the one that was mad and this was some weird dream? Mars looked down at her hands and counted her fingers. Only five . The trance she was in was broken when bits of the ground in front of her began glowing red, she jumped up to see Stiles holding a purple flower and a long root. "What the bloody hell was that?" She questioned, wide eyed, arms defensively tense at her sides. Scott was the next to stans. "You guys." He breathed looking down. Mars followed his line of sight into the pit, the wolf was gone and a naked womans top half had taken it's place.

Mars didn't know what to do. What was happening? What was _happening?!_ It was a wolf, and now it was a girl. It fucking transformed from a wolf to a woman. A _dead_ wolf to a _dead _woman. They weren't lying earlier, none of it was a lie. How many were there? Was it only werewolves? Was there more? She was not prepared to factor the supernatural into her world view! How was Stiles so calm? Mars was normally so calm, so collected, so unaffected by anything. But she was shaking, she took one look at Scott and then-

Mars screamed.

She screamed bloody fucking murder.

Quickly as he could Stiles covered her mouth with his hand and held his arm tight around her middle as they fell to the ground. "Please stop screaming." He asked over the muffled and weakening noises. "Good." He moved his hand, but she looked at Scott again, scenario after scenario racing through her head. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head while closing her eyes and every tense muscle relaxed. "Well, uh, that went well?" Stiles shrugged, looking at Scott who was staring at the brunette passe out in Stiles' lap. If there was any reaction he didn't think he'd ever see from her, in regards to _anything_ he was pretty sure that was it.

"Maybe we should call your dad." Scott noted, rubbing his arm, more self conscious than he'd ever been in his life. If _Mars_ reacted like that, Mars who never bat an eyelash, Mars who survived a plane crash, Mars who'd known Scott for his entire life was so afraid of what he was- what was Allison going to do if she found out. He knew they shouldn't have told her. He knew it.

Stiles nodded in agreement. "You okay, man?"

"Yeah, I'm- I'm great." He lied. Jesus, what would the public do if it came out? Would they vilify him? But him in some weird genetic experiments? Try to kill him like Alison's dad? He _really_ didn't want to find out. There had to be _some way_ to reverse this stupid curse.

* * *

**A/N: **So I went on a vacation for a couple weeks! I'm really sorry for the delay but what's in the past shall stay there! I'm sorry it's a little shorter than normal but it felt like too much was going on if I'd made it any longer! Hope everyone enjoyed the new installment! Woot, now Mars knows! Hopefully? She did kinda pass out there. I hope everyone continues to let me know what they think/things they'd like to see! Thanks to those of you who reviewed: **Talye Kendrin, GorditaBossinova, Taylor Francis Rose, Winchesterxgirl and guest**! And a special thanks to my beta Gabriel! You rock! I'll see everyone again soon :D


	4. wake up, wake UP, WAKE UP

**Beast of Burden **

**Chapter Four**

_**wake up, wake UP, WAKE UP**_

* * *

"_Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist_

_But the ability to start over."_

_-F. Scott Fitzgerald_

"I'm sorry that I fainted." Mars apologized, trying to remember why she'd done it. Well, she knew the _reason_ but she didn't understand why her body gave out. She felt terrible. Utterly, and completely terrible. For one, she still couldn't remember any of Lydia's party. Two, for not believing Scott and Stiles when they'd told her the bloody truth despite all of their hesitations. Third, among so much else, was the fact she'd completely _ruined_ Scott's self-esteem. Granted, she was still struggling herself to accept the fact that this boy she'd known since she was five was now a supernatural killing machine. Acceptance was going to be key though, they were all going to have to learn to live with… whatever this was. "I'm really, _really _fucking sorry, Scott." She pleaded, sitting on his bed and hugging a pillow while he cleaned and fixed up his lacrosse stuff. "Can you say something?"

He'd let her in the house, but he hadn't said a word. He didn't really know what to say, he was too sunken into feelings of inadequacy. "Uh… It's cool. It's not like you meant to do it."

Mars nodded. "You're still going to play in the game Saturday?" She'd been caught up to speed now, after they put Derek behind bars for the time being. Even though she was happy Scott had the choice and everything, she was really hoping he would make the right one and stay off the field. Though she hadn't seen him shift yet, and admittedly, yeah- she wanted to- but not in front of the whole community.

"There's no way that I'm not playing that game." He informed her, twirling the lacrosse stick. Mars nodded, deciding to change the subject.

"So, I'm hanging out with Allison tomorrow." Scott's head snapped up. "Anything you want me to ask her?" Mars wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, making Scott blush a little.

"N-no" He shook his head.

"Don't lie to me, Scott McCall." Mars pointed an accusing finger.

His cheeks burned hotter. "I don't know, can you find out if she likes me?" He scratched the back of his head and put his lacrosse stick on the desk.

"She does." Mars confirmed with a confident smile.

"How do you know though? I mean, I seriously fucked up." Scott slipped back into his insecurities. It wasn't even that he'd fucked ... it had a little to do with that, but Allison was just so gorgeous! He almost felt as if the universe was playing some cosmic joke on him and the big reveal was on its way, almost at its exit.

"Scott, you did the right thing." Mars assured him. "You said her dad is a hunter, right? You did the right thing." The party seemed like forever ago anyways, and in hindsight, she really hoped Scott could see that this wasn't the end of the world. Reassuring people was never her strong suit, and this was no exception to the rule.

"Thanks for the painful reminder her dad's trying to kill me." Scott groaned, falling onto the bed face first in front of her, feeling even more overwhelmed than before.

"That's what I'm here for." A pillow found its way under Scott's head. "But, mate, she forgave you. She gets all smiley when you're mentioned. I can list all sorts of signs. She likes you, okay?"

"You really think so?" Scott looked up at her with a small sideways smile, his stomach was in knots hearing that Mars could see Allison's feelings for him. He just hoped they were real and Mars wasn't just saying this because she felt bad about fainting.

"Bloody hell, _yes, _loverboy_._" Mars shoved him.

"Positive?"

"I'm going to curb stomp you." The petite girl threatened, now that he was a werewolf, he wasn't even mildly intimidated by her. Apparently, he'd just heal. Plus, the most she ever would do was headlock him… sometimes bite.

"Violent," Scott commented, she shrugged. "So, Don?" Scott changed the subject. He didn't want to annoy her by only talking about Allison. Stiles was already rolling his eyes about it, no need to add his only other pre-lycanthropy real friend.

"What about Don?" Mars very nearly glared at him.

"I mean, in the woods the other day you two seemed-"

"High as kites?" She cut him off, not wanting to deal with the implications of being alone in the woods with drugs and half naked. For some reason, it had always kind of bothered her when Scott or Stiles knew anything about her _real_ sex life, not just the jokes she made.

"Er. Cozy." He corrected.

"You know you can say it, Scott?" Mars decided if she was caught, she may as well be blunt, besides. Cozy sounded too… er… involved. "Shagging, fucking, having sex-"

"Yeah, yeah, okay, got it. No more questions…. I got it." Scott shook his head, it made him just as uncomfortable as it made her, if not more. She was far more liberal than most. Except maybe Stiles who had no modesty about his wanking whatsoever.

"Brilliant." Mars commented.

A thought crossed Scott's mind. "Wait, so, what are you and Allison doing tomorrow?"

"I don't know, going over her house? Maybe mine even though that's not so preferable." Mars could have cringed at the thought of bringing Allison home to her house. Thankfully she didn't.

"Will her dad be there?" Scott asked a little hesitantly, again looking up at the girl with widening eyes. He could see panic setting over her features.

"Oh my god, I didn't even _think_ of that. What should I do if he's there?" She rushed, having more expression in just her eyebrows than most do in their entire bodies.

"Mars. Hey. Calm down, no need to have a panic attack." He joked, then remembered her panic attack earlier and thought it wasn't so funny. He eyed her carefully, this wasn't her. None of this was. Not the panic, not the fear or the blackouts. The idea of talking to her parents became more and more appealing everyday to him. She may never forgive him for it but he knew he'd be doing the right thing- Mars needed help. What was supposed to be just recreation seemed to be taking over and he didn't know how much longer he could watch her fall apart.

Little did he know, none of this was a side effect of drugs. The drugs were a side effect of what was happening inside of her.

"Yes there is! Scott, if he knows about you he might think I'm a wolf, too! What if he tries to bloody murder me?!" She nearly yelled, unable to make eye contact with him and beginning to breath heavily.

"Hey." Grabbing her hand, Scott sat up. He'd never seen her look that vulnerable. And he'd known her almost his whole life. But the girl in front of him was different. There were dark circles under her eyes and her eyeliner didn't help the situation, her hair was a curly mess and she was way too skinny these days. He definitely needed to talk to Mary. Soon. "Please don't faint on me again," Scott asked, making her laugh a little at how ridiculous that reaction was and begin to calm down. "You just have to… make them like you. Find out anything you can." He explained, the ears on the other side really wouldn't hurt.

"Scott, adults _hate_ me." Mars reminded him, shaking her head and willing her heart rate to drop back down to a normal rate. At least the suffocating feeling was fleeting. "Really, passionately hate me."

"My mom doesn't hate you." Scott reminded her with a smile.

"She doesn't like me either." Mars reminded him.

"No. She doesn't like what she found in my sock drawer." He laughed at the memory.

"I didn't even know that was there!" Mars exclaimed. Because really, she had no idea.

"She doesn't know that." He referred to his mother. The whole incident had been blown out of proportion anyhow. "Anyways, can you _please _find out if she knows about- um- things like me."

Mars rolled her eyes. "You're lucky I love you."

"I know." Scott smiled that really goofy adorable smile where his eyes crinkle up. "So… It's 1 a.m." He announced after a minute of near silence, which thankfully wasn't awkward.

"And?"

"And I want to go to sleep." He stated, face still reminiscent of a smile.

"Are you kicking me out Scott?" Mars raised an eyebrow.

"I'd say you can stay, but you know how my mom feels about it." Scott shifted a little awkwardly, his mom was really cool about a lot of things. But not when it came to Mars. Melissa used to be okay with her spending the night and letting the door be closed and letting them be home alone and stuff. All that came pretty much crashing down when Melissa found a condom in Scott's sock drawer. Now it was- no sleepovers, door open, Stiles is here if I'm not- that sort of thing. Scott felt really bad about it, he only had it there as a just-in-case/never-gonna-happen type thing and Mars hadn't even crossed his mind when he'd bought it. Obviously though, it pretty directly affected her- seeing as she was the only girl Scott ever brought to the house. Ever. Mars and Melissa weren't so close after that little incident. Reasonably, Mars wasn't so happy with the accusation when she was just over to help Scott with his English coursework. Granted, Melissa _had _been kind about it. It wasn't an "I know what you're doing you little tramp." type of thing. The confrontation was more, "So, kids. I found a thing today… if you're using this thing, you should tell me because of reasons."

Mars didn't really understand the logic because if they _were _doing anything- it's not like they couldn't just go to her house. Also, that whole "Better safe than sorry" thing. Melissa should just be happy that _when_ Scott has sex, he'd be safe about it.

"Right," Mars sighed at the reminder. "I'll see you at school tomorrow, get some sleep teen wolf." She joked and stood up with a stupid grin on her face.

"Oh, come on, don't start with the puns." Wasn't Stiles' joking enough? What did he ever do to deserve two complete dicks for best friends. Not that he would ever trade them.

After blinking a couple times, Mars said; "You really think I'm going to let this opportunity go to waste?"

Scott sighed, "No," and shook his head.

"You're so adorable." Mars pinched his cheek, Scott narrowed his eyes and lied back down on his bed, gesturing to the door. Mars went to it, leaning into its frame slightly so she could reach the light switch. "Goodnight, McCall." She said, flicking off the light and heading down the hall.

"Goodnight, Moss." Scott called after her. Mars smiled, going down the stairs. She made sure to lock the front door behind her… Not that a werewolf would really have much trouble defending himself. _Werewolf._

The word crossed her mind again. It was too surreal, like she was going to wake up soon. Yesterday, monsters didn't exist. But now she couldn't help but wonder what else might be out there. She found herself mentally scanning over every book she'd ever read. And she felt like next someone was going to tell her that there were parallel time lines running and that she was going to be a tribute in the hunger games.

The next stage on her trek home was excitement. Because if Scott could be a werewolf maybe wizards were real, too! Maybe Harry Potter was out there raising Albus and James and Lily with Ginny and Hogwarts was real, which of course led her into being bitter that she was not in fact in attendance of the school. There were just so many possibilities that were overwhelming and fascinating and beautiful and horrifying.

Why was Scott chosen of everyone in the world? It was sort of easy to see in some ways. Scott was loyal, kind, selfless and had so many other outstanding qualities- but he was friends with her. It didn't feel like she was deserving of the knowledge she'd been gifted.

* * *

Mars' hunch was right, she and Allison got off the bus at the stop in front of Allison's house. It was a big old thing, well maintained, really pretty. Mars couldn't help but wonder what her mom and dad _claimed_ they did for a living. Cause this was nice. Allison and Mars walked through the front door. "Mom, Dad, I'm home," Ally announced into the foyer.

Scott's advice to Mars was taken. For once. She wanted to make a good impression on the Argent adults, considering the circumstances. Hopefully the grapevine hadn't reached them first. So she wore plain un-ripped jeans, and unbuttoned, green plaid shirt and a plain white tee. Her hair brushed and in braids with minimal makeup. Needless to say, people at school had found it surprising.

A tall woman with a red pixie cut and an overwhelming confidence came out of the kitchen with a smile, the clicking of her heels entering the room long before her body. Mars let out a breath she knew very well that she'd been holding, it wasn't Chris. So far, she had no reason to believe Victoria knew anything. "You must be Mars." Victoria greeted, Allison had said plenty about her. Victoria's sister had said even more than her daughter, and the things Joyce said conflicted majorly with what Allison said. Better to make her own opinion- or, at least play like she would. "Pleasure to meet you."

"You too, Mrs. Argent." Mars gave the best smile she could muster and shook her hand.

Allison didn't really want to stick around for the twenty questions she knew her mom was fond of. "Mom, we're just going to go hang out in my room, is that okay?" Always ask permission.

"Of course honey, just let me know if you girls need anything." Victoria nodded before heading back into the kitchen. She wanted ears in that room, but she also knew that there was no reason to. Just because Joyce was convinced the Moss girl corrupted everything she touched, didn't mean that she did. Her sister had always been fanatical anyways. Logically there was no reason to worry. Though, the idea of her only daughter going down the wrong path frightened her.

The girls went up to Allison's room. Again, Mars found herself impressed with the seeming level of luxury, it almost matched the Martin household. "Your mom seems really nice." Mars claimed, leading the conversation.

"She is." Allison smiled, putting her jacket on a hanger and into the closet.

"Are you guys close?" She asked, taking a seat at Allison's desk. She had pictures all over the place, only with her family though. Mars guessed Allison didn't really have many friends moving around as much as she did. Admittedly, if it wasn't for the whole 'trying to kill my best friend' thing, her dad was kinda hot. Mars forced herself to shake the thought.

"Yeah..." Allison continued to smile. Mars couldn't help but wonder what it might be like, to have a close relationship with one's mother, any relationship at all really would've been nice. That just wasn't in the cards for her though. For about over an hour the girls talked about Allison's life in San Francisco and all the other places she'd lived. They talked about the struggle of growing up between two places that either had yet to find someone to relate to on- until now that was. It was nice, having someone to talk to, that really understood the feeling of being on the outside. Any apprehension or wariness Mars had had of Allison had virtually vanished. The best part was, there didn't seem to be any indication that she knew anything about werewolves at all.

"So, you'll never guess who was at dinner last night," Allison switched the topic, remembering what she had been meaning to tell Mars all day.

"Probably not. Who?"

"Don." Allison laughed at the whole thing. Dinner last night had been very awkward.

"Don?" Mars repeated. "Like… Don, Don?" She couldn't bring herself to use the word _my_ before his name.

"Well, he was introduced as Donald, but yeah." Ally joked.

"Wasn't this supposed to be a family dinner?" Mars inquired, recalling what Allison had told her about it yesterday in the hall.

"It was, he's my cousin, I guess." She said, completely lighthearted.

"Wait. What? Seriously? You and Don are cousins?" Mars questioned, it seemed very… odd. Were they related by her mothers side or her fathers? Did that mean he could know about this stuff too? Everything was becoming intertwined and complicated way too fast.

"Apparently? I don't know. Mom said we met when we were little, but obviously I don't remember him." Allison gave yet another laugh before looking down at her phone.

"Who would've guessed, aye?" Mars added. "Small world."

"And it gets smaller."Allison commented, pulling the cuffs of her sweater into her palms.

"Really?"

"Really. Yeah, my Mom said her sister, Don's mom, called and asked for help? I don't know, but basically, I'm here because of Don's family. Isn't that weird?"

"Very." Mars just wished Allison would stop talking so she could think, but it wasn't like Mars could just snap on the girl. She had to store the information to share with Scott and Stiles later. She couldn't think of this now, because if she did, the whole evening would be ruined and she'd probably seem suspicious.

"Did you know his dad is in a wheelchair?" Allison continued to tell Mars shit she didn't know about her… person.

"Uh. No." Mars cleared her throat. "So you met Joyce?"

"His mom, right?" Mars confirmed it with a nod. "I did."

"And you're still talking to me?" Mars laughed, god only knows the things that came out of that woman's mouth. Probably something along the lines of Mars being a danger to society, her criminal record, corrupting her only darling son.

"I don't quite think my "aunt" is a reliable source." Ally added. "Pretty sure you're not the anti-christ."

"She said that?" Mars feigned flattery. "That's so sweet."

The doorbell rung, Allison and Mars looked at each other for a moment, like they were debating going and getting it. Ultimately, Victoria got to it before they reached a decision. "Allison! For you!" The girls wandered down the stairs, seeing a mass of strawberry blonde curls before seeing her face.

"Lydia! Hi." Allison smiled, she wasn't used to Lydia's whole personality yet. If that was even the right word to use.

"I know you two didn't think you could have a get together without me, did you?" Lydia commented, walking up the stairs ahead of them. Mars and Allison looked at Lydia ascending and then at each other.

"Not at all." Mars commented with a smile, it was very Lydia to just show up like that.

"So, back to it." Lydia commanded when they reached Alison's room, it was now evident Lydia had been here before. "What were we talking about."

"My long lost cousin Don Butler." Allison replied.

"You're cousins?" Lydia's expression was similar to Mars', except without the underlying horror of the potential implication. Not that Lydia could be expected to know any of that.

"They are." Mars confirmed.

"Small world." Lydia said.

"That's what she said." Allison pointed to Mars behind her. There was silence in the room for the first time in hours. "So, I'm sorry if this seems a little rude but I'm dying to know. Is Mars your real name?"

"No." Lydia answered for Mars.

"It's fine, Allison." Mars smiled, letting her know that there was nothing wrong with her asking. "It's nothing special anyways."

"Just strange, unpronounceable," Lydia cut in again.

"What is it?" Allison's curiosity was spiked. She wanted to know Stiles' real name too.

"Mu-" Lydia started.

"How about we _don't _do that, yeah?" Mars cocked an eyebrow, irrationally angry with her.

"I'll tell you later, Allison." Lydia rolled her eyes, Mars glared.

"If Mars doesn't want me to know, it's okay." Allison attempted to break the tension.

"I'll tell you later." Lydia repeated. Allison felt bad, but knew that resisting Lydia would be futile. Besides, she really wanted to know what kind of name you got Mars from. She'd asked Scott in the hall as well, but she was pretty sure he butchered it- especially when he tried to spell it and couldn't do that either. Scott's attempt at Stiles' name was no different. They were an odd trio, that was for sure.

* * *

_Saturday. Game day._

Mars sighed and ran a hand through her hair, standing in front of the hallway mirror. Blue eyes once again framed in heavy black kohl, her clothes back to normal. She did keep the braids up though.

She took in another shaking breath and looked away from herself. It was gonna be fine. Scott wasn't going to shift, Derek wouldn't hurt him, it was all going to be fucking dandy. Mars looked at the clock on her phone. "A.j. are you fucking coming or not?" Mars banged on the bathroom door.

"Oi, how about we be nice to our ride, sis?" He replied from the other side.

"I'll be nice when you're done doing your hair." She replied, annoyance in her voice. She wanted to get to the field. "Bloody hell, it's been twenty minutes, how much time do you need?"

Ahmir opened the door. "Have you seen my afro? Have you?" Mars rolled her eyes, it wasn't _horrid_ but it wasn't great either. "Yeah, I thought so." A.j. looked her up and down. "You're going like that?" He cocked an eyebrow in the same condescending manner she always did. Mars happened to like her outfit, fuck what anyone else thought. It wasn't a school day and she didn't have to follow dress code, her skirt could be as short as she wanted it to be.

"Don't be fucking cheeky with me." Ahmir pushed past her and started down the hall, their mom was already at the field and Dad and Nay were out and about.

"Do you aim to look like you've just rolled out of bed?" He questioned, grabbing his keys off the hook in the kitchen.

"No, I aim to look shaggable, can we go now?" Mars rebutted.

Ahmir started out for his truck with his little sister trailing behind him. "Tosser." He commented.

"Git." She replied.

"Nutter." He opened the door.

"Wanker." She did the same, both climbed in the truck. They didn't hate each other at all, but she'd been staying at home lately and that meant that they'd seen too much of the other. If they could have gotten out of the house it might of been different, but it seemed like Mary had her on house arrest aside from going to Allison's. If only word hadn't gotten back to Mary that Mars was there when the other half of the body was found. That was yet another earful no one wanted.

"You make it really hard to do nice things." A.j. commented, starting up his baby.

"Are you kidding me A.j.? You want to go the game as much as I do, don't act like you're going totally out of your way." Mars leaned against the door and put her feet on the dash. A.j. rolled his eyes, he didn't mind, but as a big brother, he was obligated to act as if he did.

Garth Brooks began to play a little on the loud side. Mars always laughed, here was a kid with a 1992 pickup, every assortment of flannel and denim, every country CD you could imagine and then he'd open his mouth and it'd be all 'Fish and chips anyone? Tea perhaps? I need to use the loo.' Nay liked to make fun of his identity issues, Mars on the other hand loved her brother just like that, she thought it was great he knew exactly who he was. "I liked you better before."

"I'm sorry?" Mars turned to him.

"Fix it." He stated, pulling out of the driveway.

"Fix it? Seriously Aje?" Mars glared, it was a random statement.

"Yeah." He confirmed, keeping his eyes set on the road. "I miss my little sister." He attempted, trying to figure out how to get this conversation to go where he wanted it, since it came out exactly the opposite of how he'd wanted it to in the first place.

"We're seriously going to do this deep shit right now?" Mars asked, crossing her arms.

"Look, Tera." Aje started, using the only nickname that was derivative of her first. "I'm going to college in fall, this is like… the end for me at home." There, he was on the right track now.

"Ajjeee." Mars whined, she was trying not to think about him leaving. She was never a fan of change and he was the only thing between her and mom literally killing each other at that point.

"Well it's _true._" He continued.

"So, what are you saying?" It was worth the inquiry.

"That I'd like a _normal_ last semester." A.j. stressed the word normal, hoping that she'd catch on.

"So we just ignore each other like we do every other year." _I guess I have to be a bit more obvious,_ He thought. Aje was the type to beat around the bush, always had been, always would be.

"But that's boring." He replied. Mars face lit up and she turned towards him. She got it. Lucky for him, he was the only person she didn't want to murder when he didn't get to the point. He had her patience in that respect, not any others though.

"Oh. Oh my god. You want to come to parties with me." Mars proclaimed.

"Psh. No." Aje brushed it off, he couldn't give her the satisfaction just yet. His sister had the social life he'd always dreamed of, and that he wanted when he went to college. Not that he was super willing to let the little shit know he thought she was kinda cool.

"Yes, yes you do. That's totally where you're going with this." Mars smiled, energetic, her mind forgetting the fears she'd had standing in the hallway. When frankly, they were far more important. Compartmentalizing was going to take some getting used to. She was still just a teenager after all.

"Can't I just want a close relationship with my little sister?" Ahmir tried. Deciding afterwards that his statement may have made it worse.

"No." Mars laughed. "Oh, oh. Let me guess, you're nervous to go to college as a virgin." Mars taunted, not serious. That was until she saw the caught look on his face. "Fucking brilliant." She commented, a rather large smile on her face.

"Ugh, sorry I asked." Now properly embarrassed, he retreated. Mars continued smiling, of course she was going to help him, he's her brother, but she was going to make him suffer a minute.

"I'll do it." She promised a little later, just enough so he'd been left with his own thoughts.

"What?" Aje looked over at her, pulling into the parking lot.

"I, darling Ahmir, am going to find someone for you to fuck." Mars declared with her accent coming out particularly hard on the word "Fuck". She was now excited for tonight. Projects were always fun, they kept her occupied.

"Oh! Oh. Um. Thanks. Thanks sis." Aje didn't quite know how to react when he got his way, seeing as it was such a rare occurrence living with the problem child and the little demon that wore the face of an angel. He hated to say it, but he wasn't a fan of Ineas, then again she'd been making his life hell for years. Angry little fucker she was. She'd never show that to Mum and Dad though. To them she was perfect.

"... Have you ever been drunk before?" Mars continued her game of twenty questions, devising a game plan in her head.

"Loads of times." He lied, she could see right through him. So, having him lie about shit was out, new method was going to be needed.

"Aje." She scolded.

"No. Alright, I'm not like you." He defended. "I don't get invited places." Mars felt sad for him. He wasn't lying, she'd never seen him go out. Not once. She felt isolated often, but in a different way. He must've felt like no one even liked him, and that must have been shitty. It always seemed weird to her that he never got invited anywhere. Sure, he wasn't athletic, but he was handsome. He put his heart into everything, Aje was one of her favorite people ever even if she didn't want to show it to him. Hearing of his sadness hurt her nearly as much as it did him.

"Big brother of mine, you are going to have the time of your life tonight." Mars was now on a serious mission. Ahmir was going to have fun for once, even if he didn't get laid.

"Tonight?" His eyes widened.

"After the game. Don, Jackass and Danny are throwing a party. You're going." He didn't have a say in the matter, he was going, and that was final.

"Nah, you know, tonight? I mean, I don't- I'm not dressed for… that stuff." He looked down at the hoodie over his plaid button up and very worn in jeans. He knew he wouldn't fit in.

"It's a lacrosse party, Aje. just… er. Unzip your hoodie and… I don't know, don't talk." He had this habit of rambling… like a lot. It'd been known to ruin more than one opportunity for him. He might find a girl who thought it was cute one day, but she was guessing that day wasn't going to be today.

"Comforting." He joked, pulling into a parking space. "Thanks."

"You're going. You'll be just fine. Promise." Mars smiled, innocently.

Aje eyed Mars. "Last time you made me a promise, I ended up stuck in a room for three days."

"Don't be dramatic." She rolled her eyes. "The incident" was 4 years ago anyways. "It was like, two and a half." She corrected. "It wasn't even that bad."

"I pissed myself." Aje looked at her, more like glared.

"Not my fault you can't control your bladder." Mars remarked. "Look, I promise that nothing will happen to you as long as I'm there. Kay?"

"...Okay." He accepted hesitantly. "Get out of my truck."

Mars rolled her eyes and jumped down, not bothering to straighten out her skirt. Too much work, frankly. The brother and sister walked towards the field, the lights illuminated the place, and the smell of fresh cut grass was more than pleasing. Mars caught a glimpse of her favorite man in the entire world and smiled, noticing him from just his salt and pepper hair. "Sheriff!" She exclaimed, giving him a hug, it felt like _ages _since she'd seen him last. Sheriff returned the embrace and clapped A.j. on the shoulder after he released her. Aje was taller than him now. "Mum." Mars nodded, she'd been talking to Sheriff before her kids crashed the conversation. "I'm taking A.j. to a _party _tonight." Mars oozed excitement, she'd never taken her brother to a party. The word party had sounded distinctly Scottish, she needed to stop watching the BBC.

"What?" Mary looked at her son, a distinct sort of worry underlying in her voice.

"Right?" Mars laughed. She was just as surprised as Mary that he wanted to go out at all initially. Now, she understood- but that didn't mean it would be less exciting. "We'll be a little late, Mum. Don't wait up, okay?" Mary crossed her arms. This wasn't the time or place, but she really didn't want A.j. to go out with his sister. That was the last thing she wanted. Schools might withdraw their acceptance, or just deny him all together if anything happened or if he got caught. If Mars screwed this up for him, she didn't know what she was going to do.

"Yeah. Okay. I'm glad you're getting out A.j." Mary lied, giving A.j. a pretty smile. She _wanted _to be happy for him but it just wasn't happening. She couldn't make herself, she could only see this domino effect ahead. Starting with this party and then spinning into drinking and then after that he'd let his grades go and he'd throw away all he'd worked for. It was ridiculous, for her to feel like her own daughter would do that to her brother- but the fear was there. It was real.

"Me too!" Aje beamed, no longer hiding what he had hidden in the car with his sister. Mary smiled again, A.j. always made her smile. He was happy, so she tried to be.

Picking favorites was a horrible thing to do, but she couldn't control it.

Sheriff realized it was about time he cut in. "Lets go find a spot before the bleachers fill up like last time." He suggested.

"Great idea." Mary agreed, happy to be looking away from her kids. They couldn't see her expressions that way. Melissa McCall came walking from the opposite direction.

"Melissa, hey." Mars greeted, in an obviously great mood.

Melissa smiled, just as excited as Mars to see Scott play his first game. "Mars." They all took their seats, Mars in between Sheriff and Aje. Waiting for the team to get out was boring. Sheriff talked to Melissa, Mary and A.j. to each other, Mars turned was glued to her phone for the majority. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mr. Argent stroll up with his daughter and take a seat next to Lydia. Mars looked down at her outfit. So much for that good first impression.

_I will not let this ruin tonight_. She swore to herself. _Separate it_. Mars glanced back and waved at Allison before turning around. _He knows nothing, or he would've done something by now._

The team ran onto the field, the crowd cheering. Stiles found his worn in seat on the bench as the team dispersed. Of course, he wanted to play, but he had the title 'benchwarmer' for a reason.

Stiles jumped when Mars hopped over the bench and sat beside him. He was already lost in thought. Worried. Essentially, ever since his dad texted him that they let Derek out, he was in a panicky state. "Moss, what are you doing on my bench?" Coach approached her.

"Just a second, Coach." She held out a finger to silence him.

Coach threw up his hands, claiming; "I give up on kids."

"So, we've got a mission tonight." Mars smirked.

Stiles focused on the game that was beginning, glancing at her for only a second. "You mean making sure Scott doesn't go all hulk out there? Yeah. I'm trying." He stressed. "Or do you mean looking out for Derek Hale, who just got released from police custody that we got him put in?" Mars' throat felt dry, they _released_ him? They'd found half a body on his property. "Body's his sisters, deemed an animal attack." He rolled his eyes. Mars reflected on his words for a moment. As always, she thought before speaking.

"Neither." She spoke up. This supernatural stuff was _not_ going to interfere with everything.

"Wha- what are you planning than?" Stiles stuttered out.

"We're going to bring Aje to the lacrosse party tonight, try to get him a girl." Stiles' eyes widened, he _sincerely_ hoped she was joking at that moment.

"Okay, number one, I can't get myself a girl- much less someone else. And number two, we have bigger things to worry about!" He exclaimed, looking around after he was made aware of his volume.

"Okay, yeah, I see what you're saying. But look at it this way, if the game goes good- the first thing is eliminated and we can't live in fear of Derek- just go on like you normally would." Mars insisted, hooking arms with him and leaning against his shoulder.

"You need help, has anyone ever told you that?" He commented, even knowing her for almost 16 years, he couldn't quite figure her out. What the actual hell was she thinking? There was a dude out there that Stiles was 153% certain wanted to kill all three of them. And she was friggen calm as all hell, pretending like things were normal. She'd made such a fuss about him telling her that he mistakenly believed she might actually try and cope with something for once in her life.

"Loads of people, actually. They're probably right, too." Mars commented, lifting her head from and looking him in the eyes, a slight pout present over her features. "Come on, say you'll help me? Please, mate?"

"What exactly do you expect me to do, Mars?" He inquired, considering what little he knew about the opposite gender.

"I don't know, make him look good." Mars suggested.

"And how do I do that?" Stiles rolled his eyes.

"Just be yourself." Mars shrugged and started back for the bleachers.

"Mars- Mars wait." Stiles yelled back to her. "What- what does that mean?"

"You'll figure it out." She shouted back at him, casually smiling. The whistle was blown and the game began.

Something about the game was off, everyone could see it. Not only was the state champion _losing_, but the teamwork they'd displayed in the past wasn't there. "I literally going to kill Jackson." Mars clenched her fists, digging her nails into her palms. It was obvious what Jackson was doing. There was no way that Scott would not be passed a single ball all game when he was completely open.

"Why?" Mary asked, her arms crossed. She noticed it too but didn't believe that it was intentional.

"Because, he's not letting anyone pass to Scott!" Mars exclaimed, climbing up on her seat and standing. "You got this, McCall!" She shouted, smiling wide when he looked over and giving him two thumbs up.

"Get down before you fall." Mary lectured. It wasn't so much that Mars was going to fall as it was the boys below her looking up Mars' skirt. Aje took a cue from his sister and stood up on the bleacher beside her.

"Go Scott! Woooooooooo!" A.j. cheered, making his voice as loud as he could and pumping his fists in the air. Mars turned behind her when she heard Allison laugh a little. Mars and Allison exchanged smiles, while Lydia sat beside Ally looking pissed off. Chris nodded, smiling a little. _Don't act suspicious_ Mars reminded herself after her breathing hitched. She returned the gesture and sat back down quickly. they can hear Allison laugh a little behind them. Mars turns around and waves.

Their support gave Scott got the push he needed. He charged through the field, adrenaline pumping through his veins; his _werewolf senses were tingling_ as he neared his target. Scott knew he had to win this game, that this was his one chance. So despite his fears and Derek's threats he let his new abilities guide him. He threw the ball and the crowd erupted in cheers. He felt the tension leave his body. For the first time since the game started he felt at ease. He was sure they were going to win.

The rest of the game flew by in a blur as Scott scored goal after goal.

In the swarm of people that had gathered on the field when the game ended, Don found Mars and kissed her. She pushed him away, holding a hand against his chest to keep him at bay. "How about no." She piped up, looking over his confused features. In his mind, they'd won, it was time to celebrate. "You think you can pull the shit you did on the field and I congratulate you?" Mars cocked an eyebrow and removed his hand from her waist, he looked annoyed. It's not like that was his choice, Jackson was captain and as soon as Coach gave the go ahead, he was the one to pass McCall nearly every ball he caught. "Try again."

"Come on, it's not like McCall isn't the star anyways." Don stressed. He should've known better than to almost fuck over Scott. Especially when she was sitting in the stands, when he knew she would chose Scott and Stiles over _anyone_, _any day_.

"Principle, Donald." Stiles grabbed Mars' hand and pulled her away, just in time. "Allison followed Scott, come on." Mars hadn't been worried about Scott running off alone, he just needed to calm down, right? But if Allison had followed- the calming down part wasn't going to happen. In fact. This was bad. Really, really bad.

The pair booked it for the locker room, Mars a little behind Stiles. Panic had set in on her again and breathing became progressively difficult. It wasn't just Scott that needed to calm down. They reached the locker room and maneuvered through a row of lockers, stopping short.

Scott and Allison were making out. Casually. No blood. No guts. No attacking. No wolfy-ness about it. Scott and Allison pulled away and Stiles and Mars did their best to act natural. Failing miserably.

Allison turned on her heels to leave, seeing the beat red boy and smirking girl. "Stiles." Allison acknowledged. "Mars." Allison passed, nodding to tell Mars to follow. Mars almost didn't go. She knew there would be gushing that she wouldn't know how to react to. This whole friend thats a girl thing was new to her. Before she followed Allison out, Mars winked and gave a thumbs up to Scott- who looked positively smitten.

They were hardly outside the locker room doors when Allison turned around and said; "I kissed him."

"I saw." Mars offered. "How was it?" She smiled, hoping she was doing alright. She, Scott and Stiles always either ignored the things all together or the conversation went something like: 'I got kissed' 'cool, bro. Tongue?' 'Yeah.' 'That's cool. Did you remember to brush your teeth this morning?' 'Yeah.' 'Good.' 'Boner?' 'Is that a question?'

So, yeah. She didn't quite understand how to do this when the reaction to her first kiss was. 'Dude, lets get pizza'

"Great. He's uh. He's a really good kisser." Allison blushed.

"That's good!" Mars didn't know how to reply, so she stood there for a moment, awkward. "Uh, you coming to the party?"

Allison nodded. "Not really much of a choice with Lydia around." She laughed.

Mars smiled at her, "Come on, mate. You can ride with me and Aje."

* * *

_I don't wanna lie, I'm gonna take what you're giving, 'Cause I know you're willing, To take me all the way. _The speakers crooned Rock Mafia while Mars scanned her surroundings, to her left was a group of lacrosse players attempting a funnel. She was nearly 100% certain that kid was going to vomit it all out in a few minutes. Behind her, there was a couple getting hot and heavy on the couch. _Someone is about to get their dick sucked._ Mars rolled her eyes, even she knew that you do that shit in private.

_The big big bang, the reason I'm alive, When all the stars collide, in this universe inside. _Raising her cigarette to her lips and inhaling, Mars closed her eyes, trying to drown it all out for a moment. "What about her?" Aje broke her out of her monetary trance and pointed to a stunning red head. Mars wanted to tell him to go for it, but she wasn't cruel.

"Her?" Mars asked for confirmation, to make sure they were both looking at the same girl.

"Her." A.j. confirmed nodding in her direction and pointing still. Mars lowered his arm for him. There was no need to be obvious about what they were doing.

"No, love. Out of your league." She clapped her brother on the shoulder.

"Rude." He replied, crossing his arms over his chest, Mars tried to smile for re-assurance. They'd been at this for over an hour.

"Honest." Mars replied. Eventually, her eyes fell on a petite girl with a choppy blonde bob. The girl had almond shaped brown eyes, slightly too big lips, and a kinda-crooked nose on the smaller side. Blondie wore a pair of distressed jeans and a Rush 2112 tee. "Um… her?" Mars suggested, thinking that the girl might be kind of perfect for her weirdo brother.

A.j.'s head turned to where his sister was looking. "She's pretty." Aje looked over the girl, his palms beginning to sweat. If Mars thought he could do it, he felt like he could, and halving it be an almost-reality made him obscenely nervous.

"So go talk to her." Mars encouraged, putting her screwdriver in his hands so he looked like he'd been drinking more than he had. One beer wasn't much to brag about.

"You want to lead and I'll just like, I don't know. Follow and stuff?" A.j. suggested, taking a sip of whatever it was just appeared in his hand. It was disgusting, as was evident by his expression of distaste.

"Wingman." Mars grabbed Stiles' arm on her right and turned him to her. Stiles rolled his eyes. "Help A.j." She demanded, gesturing to the gangly boy in front of her.

"I don't know if you heard me the first time. But I have no idea what you want me to do." Stiles repeated what he'd told her earlier.

"Be yourself. Your embarrassing, annoying, twitchy self." Mars explained. "Make Aje look like a greek god."

Stiles looked at her, waiting for her to take the major blow to his ego back. When she didn't he internalized it, shrugging it off. "You are a cruel and heartless woman."

"You really mean it? That's so sweet." Mars kissed Stiles' cheek.

"What do I get out of this anyways?" Stiles questioned, hands shoved in his hoodies pockets.

"The satisfaction of knowing you helped out a friend?" Aje tried. He figured they were about the same level of loser, so maybe this could work.

Stiles just looked at Mars. Strongly communicating that she needed to do something for him. The thing was, if A.j. had just asked he would've been more than happy to be wingman- but Mars had to go demanding. No one could tell him what to do and expect him _not _to do the opposite without some sort of enticement. "I'll partner up with Lyd on the next project." Mars groaned.

Instantaneously, his body language and, frankly, everything about him lit up like a christmas tree. "Spit shake." He spit into his hand, holding it out in front of him. She had to shake on it, or else she would break the deal. It was like selling your soul to a demon if you didn't get the shake.

"Still disgusting." Mars mimicked him and shook on it, wiping her hand on her skirt after. "Just help Aje." She waved them off in the direction of the blond girl.

"Yeah, you got it." Stiles bounced, _He'd get his chance with Lydia!_ "Come on, man." Stiles pulled A.j.'s shirt in the direction of the blonde, not giving him and option about where to go.

"Hi there!" Stiles greeted the girl, adjusting his hoodie.

The girl looked him up and down before flat out stating; "No." There goes his confidence again.

"Woahkay." Stiles backed off, Ahmir nudged him. "So, uh, what's your name?"

"Poppy." She replied, uninterested.

"Poppy, that's- that's pretty." Stiles tried.

A.j. recognized her, and in knowing her- he felt like he could talk to her. "Yeah, yeah. You're in my physics class, right?"

"Am I? I don't remember an English kid." Poppy commented on his voice, hell, she would've remembered an English accent- who wouldn't.

"Well. Uh, yanno, I normally stay in the back of the class." Aje scratched the back of his head. "I'm not a mathy- person."

"Is anyone?" Poppy agreed, flashing a perfectly straight smile.

"Nah." A.j. pointed to Stiles. "Um well I'm- I'm Ahmir and this is my mate Stiles."

"What the hell is a Stiles?" Poppy wanted the sophomore to go away.

"Me. I- I'm a Stiles." He was definitely picking up the vibe she was putting out. "Yeah, yanno what, I'm gonna take this as my cue to go. You two kids have fun." Poppy looked at him as he continued to stand still, just looking between her and Aje. "I'm going." He announced, walking away to look for Scott somewhere in this mess of drunken idiots.

Back over by the kitchens, Mars leaned against the archway and Don against the wall beside her as they watched the scene unfolding in front of him. Mars gave an encouraging nod when her brother looked back and smiled excitedly. "How are you even related?" Don commented. "He's such a fucking dweeb." Mars side eyed him, annoyed. No one could talk about A.j. like that.

"If you really must know, we share parents. Thus making us siblings. Don't know if you ever heard of it, kind of a sacred bond." Her sarcasm was noted, but not appreciated. Don realized he fucked up. "And only I can call him a dweeb. I think it would be wise if you shut your trap before I knock your teeth out."

"Feisty." He brushed off her anger.

"And I don't even try." She rolled her eyes and let out a heavy breath.

"Want to go to dinner tomorrow?" Don tried, his timing literally horrible.

"No."

"Why?" _If only looks could kill, Don would be dead._

Deciding not to bring up the fact he was a twat and to also, with any luck, prevent him from asking again in the future, she said; "Because first, it's dinner, then it'll be dates, then come the overnights. After that you'll start talking about love and calling me your girlfriend and frankly all of it is pointless. All fucking pointless." Mars stood up straight. "So no, Don. I won't go to dinner with you, because I will never be that girl."

"You could have just stuck with no." He huffed.

"Fuck off, Don."

"Do you know how many girls would kill to be with me?" Again, he'd said the wrong thing.

"Yes, and I highly suggest if you're looking for someone to get more than fucked and fucked up with, you choose one of them." Mars replied, disinterested. "And if thats what you decide, I'll be happy for you and it was fun while it lasted." Don felt like she'd slapped him. "We've had this conversation before. I like your cock, I like your drugs. I'm done being nice about it."

"Understood." He was going to try one last thing. "You know, no one would think any less of you if you showed that you care."

"You should walk away before I seriously snap at you." Mars didn't even look at him when she said it, she was seething. _I fucking care about things._ She wanted to scream at him, but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction. _Aje, Stiles, Scott, Sheriff, Doc._ She ran through the 5 grand loves of her life she'd do anything for them as she's proven several times over. How dare Don say she didn't care about anything when those five were just the tip of the iceberg.

"Whatever." Don walked away, finding his way to Danny, Jackson was off with Lydia.

"Hey, Watson!" Don heard Mars' voice yell. He turned around and Mars was making out with his teammate, one hand on the back in his hair, the other holding a drink. Watson had a hand grabbing her ass, the other holding a drink as well. Don was repulsed by it. "That offer still on the table?" Mars recalled an offer to fuck from the last time she saw him, pulling away only an inch. Her hand finding his and guiding it under her skirt, she knew Don was watching and that was the whole point. Well, that, and she really was really quite horny. "It's a one time thing, can you handle it?"

Watson's eyes widened a little, but he recovered. "Yeah, of course." Mars put her drink down and removed his hand from her bum under her skirt, pulling him up the stairs to Danny's parents room.

Don watched them go up the stairs. "I fucking hate her." He glared.

"If you hate her so much, then why do you care what she does?" Danny cut a hole in his statement, between him and Jackson- he didn't know who he wanted to punch in the face more when they started talking about trouble in paradise.

"Shut up, Danny." Don snapped.

"And hasn't she pretty explicitly stated that she's going to do what she wants and who she wants and that this is nothing serious?" Danny reminded him.

"Danny." Don warned.

"Look, I'm just saying that maybe you're taking it a little personally. She never promised anything." Danny's words were met with nothing but silence. "I know her pretty well, if you want her to do something, it's got to be her idea." He suggested, and it was true. Knowing someone since the first grade does allow you to get to know a person. Don didn't reply, he decided to change the subject when A.j. walked by hand in hand with Poppy heading for the door.

"Now there's a miracle."

"I don't know, Ahmir is funny. It's not that surprising." Dan commented, shrugging. He regretted throwing this party, his parents were going to kill him when they got back from their trip.

"Do you like him?" Don questioned.

Danny held his tongue. "No." He was so annoyed, ever since he came out Don had been acting odd. Of course, he knew Don didn't mean to say a lot of the shit he said- but the mild homophobia got under his skin. Just because he was gay, didn't mean he wanted to do every guy he saw- just like Don didn't want to do every girl he saw.

* * *

Leaves moving gently in the wind was the first thing Mars saw when she opened those big blue eyes that morning. The sun wasn't quite risen yet and the skies were pink on the horizon. _It's beautiful._ She thought.

Mars slowly woke up, not registering much until she realized- she couldn't hear anything. _What the fuck._ Mars let out a breath, feeling herself sinking. She turned to the left.

She was in the water.

The calm that had been keeping her afloat was long gone by the time she screamed and water began to fill up her lungs. She knew how to swim. But she couldn't fucking remember and she was flailing. _Where the fuck am I?!_

Feeling pressure on her waist and tugging didn't do much to calm her down. In fact, it did the opposite. "Get off of me! Get the fucking fuck off of me!" She screeched in between gasps for air. Whomever grabbed her pulled her out of the water and onto the lawn. She began choking up water and gasping.

"You're okay." Danny held her, confused as all hell. She continued to cough and shake and held his arm while trying to steady out her breathing. "Mars. You're safe." She took in her surroundings. She was still at Danny's house, plastic shot glasses and cigarette butts littered the area around them. Danny and Greenberg had woken up to her scream, they'd been sleeping on the deck.

"What happened?" Greenberg ran over to them.

"I don't know! I just- I woke up and- and I was in there! Why the fuck was I in the pool?! How can you sleep in water?!"

"Hey- hey, calm down okay." Danny held her arms at her side, Mars took a deep breath and nodded. "You don't remember anything from last night?"

"I remember everything up until after I fucked Watson." Danny and Greenberg didn't so much as flinch at her vulgarity.

"Okay. Do you remember taking anything?" Danny was freaked out by whatever just happened. Really, overly freaked out.

"No, I only had one drink." She shook her head, before looking between the two boys in front of her. "Guys, promise me this will stay between us?"

"Promise." Greenberg agreed, Danny just nodded.

"Thank you." Mars couldn't make any more eye contact, and she was suddenly very cold.

"Are you okay?" Greenberg handed her his jacket.

"I'm fine. I'll be fine."

* * *

**A/N: That lacrosse scene was such a bitch to write that I made a friend do it (thank you, Javier) and to be completely honest, I'm probs going to skip any other lacrosse scenes. haha. A special thanks as always to my lovely beta Gabe and to xXbriannaXx, Talye Kendrin, winchesterxgirl and swanqueen4 for the lovely reviews. They're always wicked appreciated! Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter! Leave a comment and let me know if you have any guesses to what Mars' deal is!**


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